Stewart K. C

As part of Universal's Colour Collection, Rod Stewart is featured on previously released tracks taken from the singer's stint with Mercury in the '70s. Among the 17 tracks are the original versions of "Maggie May," "Every Picture Tells a Story" and "Twistin' the Night Away."

In some ways, 1973 was a little early for Rod Stewart to release a greatest-hits album, since he had only released four albums to that point. Nevertheless, Sing It Again Rod is a good collection, featuring most of the obvious choices from his first four records…

1986's Up From the Dark collects a series of U.K. singles recorded by the husband-and-wife team of Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin (both formerly of Hatfield and the North; Gaskin was leader of the group's female auxiliary, the Northettes) in the early '80s. Although Stewart's and Gaskin's roots are in '70s progressive music, these singles show an understanding and appreciation of post-punk dynamics, both in the subtly ironic '60s covers (nearly half of the album, ranging from their hit deconstruction of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" to a pair of Motown tunes to a sympathetic reading of the Honeybus' freakbeat gem "Do I Figure in Your Life") to a sublime pair of covers of recent singles. Thomas Dolby's "Leipzig," one of his finest early songs, is given a ghostly, gorgeous reading, and this version of Andy Partridge's "Roads Girdle the Globe" is the finest XTC cover ever…

Once he became a superstar, Rod Stewart essentially gave up on songwriting because, let's face it, it's easier to play endless football and cavort with models. Every once in a while his muse returned, so he tried a little bit harder, such as in 1988 when he spun Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" into a song of his own, which wound up as the last hit single of his that he ever wrote…

Featuring a true golden-age cast, this 1967 Radio Broadcast hums and bubbles with invigorating warmth and unquenchable passion under the sprightly baton of Rafael Kubelik. Thomas Stewart is a intelligent Sachs, who brings real weight and power to the great Act III monologue but who retains real lyricism for the role's more tender moments. It would be inconceivable that Gundula Janowitz's creamy-voiced Eva would pass him over if it were not for the ardent, fiery Walther of Sándor Kónya, who gives voice to an ethereal rendition of the Prize song. Thomas Hemsley is an nuanced Beckmesser thankfully devoid of caricature, and Franz Crass is a warm, fatherly Pogner. Brigitte Fassbaender may be the most sensuous Magdalena on record, and is paired expertly by the great Gerhard Unger, at his considerable best as David.