Love Louder

Wilbert Longmire is a guitarist discovered by George Benson and introduced to Bob James to launch his Tappan Zee label through CBS. Like Benson, Wilbert Longmire was a master of the fusion jazz style who could also sing and was prolific in the jazz, funk and soul genres for the 3 albums he made with the label.

Over the years, the music world has seen its share of over-70 singers who kept performing even though they didn't have much of a voice left: Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra are among the names that come to mind. But when B.B. King entered his 70s, the veteran blues singer/guitarist could still belt it out with confidence, and he does exactly that on Makin' Love Is Good for You, which was recorded when King was 74…

I Love Rock-n-Roll, Joan Jett's first record with the Blackhearts, was a tougher, louder album than Bad Reputation, primarily because her new backing band gave her a more coherent sound…

If boiled down to a simple synopsis, the Beatles' LOVE sounds radical: assisted by his father, the legendary Beatles producer George, Giles Martin has assembled a remix album where familiar Fab Four tunes aren't just refurbished, they're given the mash-up treatment, meaning different versions of different songs are pasted together to create a new track. Ever since the turn of the century, mash-ups were in vogue in the underground, as such cut-n-paste jobs as Freelance Hellraiser's "Stroke of Genius" – which paired up the Strokes' "Last Night" with Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" – circulated on the net, but no major group issued their own mash-up mastermix until LOVE in November 2006.

If boiled down to a simple synopsis, the Beatles' LOVE sounds radical: assisted by his father, the legendary Beatles producer George, Giles Martin has assembled a remix album where familiar Fab Four tunes aren't just refurbished, they're given the mash-up treatment, meaning different versions of different songs are pasted together to create a new track…

I Love Rock-n-Roll, Joan Jett's first record with the Blackhearts, was a tougher, louder album than Bad Reputation, primarily because her new backing band gave her a more coherent sound. That dynamic, hard rock crunch is what made the title track into an international hit, but it also gives the album dimension – not only can Jett & the Blackhearts tear up heavy glam rockers, but they also pull off the mock psychedelia of Tommy James & the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover" with aplomb…