The Artist's Way

Remember the time when life was easy with 60 classic easy listening hits. From Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach and Sandie Shaw through to Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black and The 5th Dimension, The Easy Way is the all-encompassing easy listening album you need.

Remember the time when life was easy with 60 classic easy listening hits. From Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach and Sandie Shaw through to Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black and The 5th Dimension, The Easy Way is the all-encompassing easy listening album you need.

Radio Cramps: The Purple Knif Show is a 1999 compilation of some of The Cramps' Lux Interior's favorite garage rock songs, most of which came from his own record collection. This was released by Munster.

As part of Radio 2's Great British Songbook, Bob Harris investigates the songs the Beatles gave away. The most popular group in the world for over 45 years, a recent issue of re-mastered albums saw four Top 10 entries in the UK chart, while their compilation '1' looks set to be America's biggest album this decade. The fevered excitement that accompanied every release in the 1960s is well documented but less is known about the music written, though not necessarily recorded or released, by the Beatles during the same decade.

By the late 1960s, sales on the King label were so dominated by superstar James Brown that other releases by the company were overshadowed and underpromoted. What's more, Brown's success was so massive that, as the liner notes to this CD aptly state, "King's release schedules were dominated by records by Brown, his band, or records that seemed to sound as if they were made by Brown." Almost a couple dozen such tracks from obscure 1967-1973 singles (with the exception of a previously unissued take of Bill Doggett's "Wet and Satisfied") are on this compilation, stretching even past the point where Brown left King for Polydor. Most of the artists are as little known as the singles, with the exception of the Coasters, Hank Ballard, and Bill Doggett, all '50s rock stars who were long past their prime by the time these cuts emerged. Brown had direct or indirect connections to some (though not all) of these discs, sometimes in the production and songwriting departments.

By May 1964, when The Sound of the R & B Hits compilation came out in the UK on Stateside, Motown had yet to have a hit or even a record issued on its own label, later to be Tamla-Motown. This LP was the first of many UK anthologies of recordings from the Detroit-based group of labels. At this stage, Motown was an underground affair, known only to aficionados of rhythm and blues music. Among those were members of groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames and super-fan Dusty Springfield. This was not music that was played on the radio, so it was through UK cover versions that many young people were directed to the Motown sound. Ace director Roger Armstrong bought The Sound of the R & B Hits at the time and always heard it is as a companion piece to With The Beatles from the previous year. They both contained the Barrett Strong song Money.

Starting in 1962, Berry Gordy decided the best way to market his artists was to take them on the road, and for four years (1962-1965 and 1969), the label issued live Motortown Revue albums to capture the excitement. Except for the 1969 edition, none of these have been on CD, and they appear here with an awesome booklet featuring original artist bios and photos from the tour programs! Hear Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Martha & the Vandellas and more limited edition of 5000!