Classic Pop – May 2023

Celebrating the Kinks 60th anniversary and compiled by The Kinks, this is a new, high-profile, worldwide release combining the Pye and RCA catalogues. It is the first new Kinks ‘best of’ for many years, especially so on vinyl.‘The Journey’ is a collection of tracks chosen by The Kinks’ Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Mick Avory that reflect the trials and tribulations of their journey through life together as a band since 1963. Contains: Hits, key album tracks, singles, band favorites and B-sides. All recordings remastered from original master sources. Features 8 Top 20 Hits (of which 5 were top 3) including: Waterloo Sunset, You Really Got Me, Celluloid Heroes, Supersonic Rocket Ship, Dead End Street, Death Of A Clown, All Day And All Of The Night. Tracks are taken from all the classic original Kinks albums, including: Kinda Kinks, Face To Face, Something Else and the recently remastered 50th anniversary editions of Village Green Preservation Society, Lola, Muswell Hillbillies and Everybody's In Show-Biz.

Sparks new album, 'The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte', is a modern masterpiece. For the uninitiated, Sparks are an art pop duo comprised of brothers Ron and Russell Mael. Their influence on pop music cannot be overstated, having inspired everyone from Queen to Bjork. In Edgar Wright's Sparks documentary, super-producer Jack Antonoff states, "all pop music is re-arranged Sparks." 'The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte' marks Sparks' first release on the venerable Island Records label in close to five decades, following such classics as 1974's landmark Kimono 'My House', highlighted of course by the indelible hit single 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us'. The album includes such instantly intriguing new musical vignettes as 'Mona Lisa's Packing, Leaving Late Tonight' and 'Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is', songs which once again display Sparks' seemingly ceaseless ability to craft complete, intricately detailed stories within perfect three-and-a-half minute pop masterpieces. Both characteristically timeless and unequivocally modern, 'The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte' once again affirms that, after more than a half century making such masterpieces, Sparks remain inimitable, ingenious and, as ever, utterly one of a kind.

As adjuncts to our highly popular “America’s Greatest Hits” series of collections for each calendar year in the 50s and early ‘60s, we have already produced collections based on landmark moments in the Billboard charts – “The First Top 100 Nov. 1955” (ACQCD7062), “The First Hot 100 Aug. 1958” (ACQCD7083), “The First Hot 100 of the '60s” (ACQCD7097), “The 'Heartbreak Hotel' Top 100” (ACQCD7122)and “The Day The Music Died - Feb 3rd 1959 Hot 100” (ACQCD7134), “The 'Telstar' Hot 100 December 22nd 1962” (ACQCD7144), “The Twist” Hot 100 Jan. 25th 1962” and “The 1000th Billboard Chart 7th September 1959”(ACQCD7164), each comprising records from the Top 100 or Hot 100 for the date in question.

Sown from the seeds of two Midlands bands, Finders Keepers, featuring Mel Galley (guitar/ vocals), Dave Holland (drums) and Glenn Hughes (bass/vocals), plus The Montanas’ John Jones (vocals/trumpet) and Terry Rowley (keyboards/guitar/flute), Trapeze were discovered by 60s beat supremos The Moody Blues, snapped up for their own Threshold label for whom they recorded three albums, the first two of which were produced by The Moody Blues’ John Lodge.

SUPERB TRIPLE DISC SET OF JUDAS PRIEST BROADCAST RECORDINGS Despite often being hailed as part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal - termed by Sounds Magazine in 1979 - Judas Priest formed a decade earlier, in 1969.

A wonderfully groovy set – every bit as great as you might guess from the title and the cover – and the very first installment in the now-legendary Mood Mosaic series! The set's one of the few to bring together tunes from the groovier side of the spectrum at the end of the 60s – work from British, French, American, and German sources – all awash in a great blend of funky, easy, and pop-oriented modes! There's a nicely trippy feel throughout – and titles include "Hascisch Party" by George Garvarenz, "Kiss This" by Claude Denjean, "Acka Raga" by Shocking Blue, "Mas Que Nada" by Luiz Enriquez, "En Melody" by Serge Gainsbourg, "Love For Sale" by Marian McPartland, "Batucada" by Phil Crewe, "Marins Armins Amant Ou Maris" by Michel Legrand, and "Sitar Beat" by Klaus Doldinger. © 1996-2024, Dusty Groove, Inc.

The 3CD set represents the complete archival live concert recordings by Elvis Presley in the 1950’s. All 82 tracks have been remastered and restored and the accompanying booklet chronologically follows Elvis from the very first, to the last shows performed.

STEVIE NICKS - COMPLETE STUDIO ALBUMS & RARITIES. 10CD boxed set combining all of Nicks’ solo studio albums in a new, career-spanning set. It comes with all 8 of her studio albums: Bella Donna (1981), The Wild Heart (1983), Rock a Little (1985), The Other Side of the Mirror (1989), Street Angel (1994), Trouble in Shangri-La (2001), In Your Dreams (2011), and 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault (2014). The collection also features Rarities, a new 2CD compilation of hard-to-find tracks only available with the set.

Though it ultimately must be considered an interim vehicle for singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist Steve Winwood, Traffic was a successful group that followed its own individual course through the rock music scene of the late '60s and early '70s. Beginning in the psychedelic year of 1967 and influenced by the Beatles, the band turned out eclectic pop singles in its native Great Britain, though by the end of its first year of existence it had developed a pop/rock hybrid tied to its unusual instrumentation: At a time when electric guitars ruled rock, Traffic emphasized Winwood's organ and the reed instruments played by Chris Wood, especially flute. After Dave Mason, who had provided the band with an alternate folk-pop sound, departed for good, Traffic leaned toward extended songs that gave its players room to improvise in a jazz-like manner, even as the rhythms maintained a rock structure.