Pop, rock, and R&B hits are given a 60s makeover on this collection. Throwbackthursday 60s features 24 popular tunes.

Guitarist T-Bone Walker is one of the most influential musicians in musical history. The Texan was one of the pioneers of the electric guitar and his recordings, made in the early 1940s for Capitol, Rhumboogie, and Black & White, are some of the earliest defining moments for electric blues. His playing was influential upon others of his era: most notably B.B. King but also several jazz players and many rock greats. He made a lot of records throughout his later career, some of variable quality. The less ground-breaking albums have often been overlooked; one of the best is his 1969 Bluestime LP Every Day I Have The Blues . Producer Bob Thiele took him to Capitol studios, teamed him up with some of the best session musicians and made a crisp, slightly funky masterpiece. There are great vocal performances, such as on the title track and Sail On , and his guitar sounds amazing on For B.B. King . This album didn t sell well, is difficult to find and is largely forgotten. This is its first reissue, and is taken from original master tapes. As a bonus Ace have added two tracks that were recorded at a 1970 show at the Carnegie Hall, New York.

Here are three 20th-century violin concertos written within a 30-year period in three totally different styles, played by a soloist equally at home in all of them. Bernstein's Serenade, the earliest and most accessible work, takes its inspiration from Plato's Symposium; its five movements, musical portraits of the banquet's guests, represent different aspects of love as well as running the gamut of Bernstein's contrasting compositional styles. Rorem's concerto sounds wonderful. Its six movements have titles corresponding to their forms or moods; their character ranges from fast, brilliant, explosive to slow, passionate, melodious. Philip Glass's concerto, despite its conventional three movements and tonal, consonant harmonies, is the most elusive. Written in the "minimalist" style, which for most ordinary listeners is an acquired taste, it is based on repetition of small running figures both for orchestra and soloist, occasionally interrupted by long, high, singing lines in the violin against or above the orchestra's pulsation.

Two hugely collectable one-off cult prog rock albums, The Running Man’s self-titled debut from 1972 and Mouse’s Lady Killer from 1973. Both featuring guitarist and songwriter Ray Russell, singer and keyboardist Alan Greed aka Al Clare and drummer Alan Rushton (all ex Rock Workshop). A sought-after original pressing of The Running Man has fetched £950 on collectors’ website Discogs while an original of Mouse’s Lady Killer has sold for a whopping £1,110. Ray Russell replaced Vic Flick in The John Barry Seven, toured with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, led his own jazz group The Ray Russell Quartet and then brought jazz style improvisation to rock music with Rock Workshop who pioneered an exciting and innovative jazz / funk / rock fusion. After the demise of Rock Workshop, guitarist and band leader Russell, lead singer and keyboardist Alan Greed and drummer Alan Rushton re- convened as jazz influenced progressive rockers The Running Man for an impressive one-off album for RCA’s Neon label in 1972 on which they were augmented by trumpet and flugelhorn player Harry Beckett and tenor saxophonist Gary Windo. This is included on CD one with bonus tracks taken from Russell’s tape archive.

Elvis Presley La tirade est connue mais résume bien la situation : l’Amérique a eu plus de quarante présidents, mais un seul roi ! Né le 8 janvier 1935 à Tupelo dans le Mississippi, Elvis Aaron Presley ne passa que 42 années sur terre mais son influence sur la musique, sur la culture et sur la nation américaine ne se mesure pas vraiment.

With shared love for the tradition of Renaissance and Folk-Rock music, legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and award-winning lyricist and singer Candice Night founded Blackmore’s Night in 1997. They have been enchanting audiences around the world ever since.

One of the most popular singer/songwriters of the 1970s, Cat Stevens won critical acclaim and a loyal following for his gently soulful songs of love, spiritualism, and the search for a better world. While he began his career as a clever pop singer in the late '60s, he changed his approach with 1970's Mona Bone Jakon, and on albums like Tea for the Tillerman (1970) and Teaser and the Firecat (1971), his earthy voice and introspective lyrics struck a chord with audiences around the world seeking comfort after the turbulent '60s. By the end of the decade, he'd embraced the Muslim faith and stepped away from his career, avoiding the spotlight and focusing on spiritual and charitable work. In the '90s, he quietly returned to music, recording Muslim-themed music for children, and in 2006 he returned to Western pop with the album An Other Cup, released under the name Yusuf.

With her signature breathy vocals, romantically nostalgic songs, and melancholy lyrics she often penned herself, Françoise Hardy was a pop music and fashion icon celebrated as a French national treasure. She was one of the earliest and most definitive French participants in the yé-yé movement and her first single, 1962's "Tous Les Garçons et les Filles," sold over two million copies and made her a European star overnight. As the yé-yé sound faded, Hardy shifted to a more introspective, folky, and dramatic sound that helped her move from a pop sensation to an artist.

“Welcome to the Mood” is the fifth studio album by New Zealand collective LEISURE, expanding their signature soul-electronic sound with a stronger live-recorded feel. Moving away from loops and samples, the band incorporated live strings, brass, piano, and backing vocals. Lyrically, it explores love, loss, connection, hope, and purpose, while the sound blends nostalgic warmth with futuristic textures. The album’s visual concept draws inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, reflecting the group’s vision of art as a space for creativity and human connection.

With her signature breathy vocals, romantically nostalgic songs, and melancholy lyrics she often penned herself, Françoise Hardy was a pop music and fashion icon celebrated as a French national treasure. She was one of the earliest and most definitive French participants in the yé-yé movement and her first single, 1962's "Tous Les Garçons et les Filles," sold over two million copies and made her a European star overnight. As the yé-yé sound faded, Hardy shifted to a more introspective, folky, and dramatic sound that helped her move from a pop sensation to an artist.

Mercurial Son, Lurrie Bell's intense second album, is a searing, passionate collection of urban blues laced with the rhythmic fury of vintage '50s R&B and rock & roll. In particular, Bell works the classic Bo Diddley shuffle a number of times, tapping into the scary, menacing undertones of Diddley's primal beats. Not only is his guitar playing white hot, his vocals are gutsy and impassioned - he makes even the weaker numbers on the album sound convincing. And the songs on Mercurial Son are varied and intriguing, ranging from rollicking rockers and dense, funky boogie to heartfelt ballads and even an a cappella track. The variety is what makes the album stand out from the pack of contemporary blues releases - it's one of the more compelling recent blues records.

Rudy Adrian keeps on surprising the listener with his excellent blend of retro-electronic music and ambient soundscapes. In the USA, people now also had the opportunity of seeing this special musician live because he toured there in 2002. The result, "Concerts in the USA", contains perhaps the best music the New Zealander has produced until this moment.
The CD opens with "Japanese Garden" with beautiful atmospheres, which accompany Rudy’s dark voice and a big, Vangelis-like, solo. Then the sequences enter the music in "The Donner Pass Rail Corridor". They become heavier and heavier as the piece further progresses and Adrian gets the chance to put in even more solos…

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the long overdue release of an expanded 2CD remastered edition of the classic 1978 live album Alive & Well Recorded In Paris by the celebrated Jazz and Rock group Soft Machine. The album was the band ‘s third for EMI's Harvest label and featured a line-up of KARL Jenkins (Piano, Electric Keyboards, Synthesiser), John Marshall (Drums), John Etheridge (Acoustic and Electric Guitars) and new members Steve Cook (Bass Guitar) and Ric Sanders (Violin). The final live recordings to be released by the band during their lifetime, Alive & Well was the product of several nights of excellent concerts at Le Palace Theatre in Monmartre, Paris in July 1978. The album was initially released as a single album, although the discovery of multi-track masters of a concert in the archives has resulted in this expanded edition with a CD of additional material recorded in July 1978…

There is a song on LOVED, the third album by Parcels, about the electropop quintet's early days as a band, when they moved from Australia's Byron Bay to Berlin right after graduating high school—three of them sleeping in the same bed and two on the couch: "I remember when we were green/ Five people and two sets of keys/ Trying so hard to be seen." It's easy-going, a little sun-dazed, with a jammy drum break, and exactly the vibe you might associate with their homeland.

The Beatles So much has been said and written about the Beatles – and their story is so mythic in its sweep – that it's difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the rock era, and they introduced more innovations into popular music than any other group of their time. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline who were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and didn't let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity and never losing the ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience.