The Beatles Now And Then (2023)

One of the greatest stars of the rock & roll era, Elton John exploded like a supernova in the early 1970s and sustained a career that kept him at the top of the charts for the next five decades. He had a Billboard Top 40 hit single every year between 1970 and 1996, a sign that he knew how to both change with the times and mold the times to fit him. John's earliest records were part of the moody, introspective post-'60s singer/songwriter movement, but once he had a hit with "Your Song," the pianist revealed he could also craft Beatles-like pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb. As "Rocket Man," "Crocodile Rock," "Daniel," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Bennie and the Jets" – songs John wrote with his lifelong collaborator Bernie Taupin – climbed into the Top Ten on either side of the Atlantic, John was inescapable during the first half of the '70s. His versatility, combined with his effortless melodic skills, and flamboyant stage shows, became his calling cards, sustaining him through shifts in fame and fortune. Eventually, John reached outside of pop music, writing songs for Disney's The Lion King and collaborating with Tim Rice on Aida, yet he never abandoned the form: during the 2010s and 2020s, he balanced fashionable collaborations with emerging stars with albums that hearkened back to his moody records of the early '70s. In 2024, he joined the elite group of EGOT winners after earning an Emmy Award for his concert special Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium.

3CD box set spotlighting the pioneering movement that brought the world The Beatles but has been overshadowed by their success. Merseybeat was a brief phenomenon but hugely influential throughout the world. It blew up nationwide in 1963 before Merseybeat groups spearheaded the ‘British Invasion’ of the US charts. This box celebrates the scene on the first two discs, then on disc three presents some of the brilliant mod, freakbeat, psych and Mersey soul music that came from Liverpool when the Merseybeat bubble burst and press and public looked elsewhere. Inspired by US rock ‘n’ roll, R&B and Motown and the D.I.Y. attitude of skiffle, the Liverpool beat groups rocked clubs such as their hometown’s The Cavern and the Star-Club in Hamburg and larger ‘Big Beat’ sessions at The Tower Ballroom in New Brighton. The Searchers and Gerry And The Pacemakers achieved success on the world stage, others never made it out of their local area, made a couple of 45s or even demos and disappeared.

Kidd (b. Frederick Heath, 23 December 1939, Willesden, London, England, d. 7 October 1966, England), is now rightly revered as an influential figure in the birth of British rock. Although his backing group fluctuated, this enigmatic figure presided over several seminal pre- Beatles releases. Formed in January 1959, the original line-up consisted of two former members of the Five Nutters skiffle group, Kidd (lead vocals) and Alan Caddy (b. 2 February 1940, Chelsea, London, England, d. 16 August 2000; lead guitar), joined by Tony Docherty (rhythm guitar), Johnny Gordon (bass) and Ken McKay (drums), plus backing singers Mike West and Tom Brown. Their compulsive debut single, ‘Please Don’t Touch’ barely scraped into the UK Top 20, but it remains one of the few authentic home-grown rock ‘n’ roll performances to emerge from the 50s.

Saxon was one of the early leaders of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, alongside Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, even outdistancing them at the onset. Emerging in 1977, the band found commercial success with the release of their seminal sophomore effort, 1980's Wheels of Steel, which went platinum in the U.K. Subsequent efforts Strong Arm of the Law (1980), Denim and Leather (1981), and Power & the Glory also did well at home, with the latter outing cracking the Billboard 200, but a series of bad decisions and bad breaks, as well as internal strife, severely stunted the band's momentum toward the end of the '80s. Still, Saxon persevered, recording and performing consistently into the 21st century, and ultimately attaining respectability from the heavy metal community, particularly in mainland Europe. The veteran rockers released their 23rd studio album, Thunderbolt, in 2018. They also paid homage to their influences on a pair of covers albums before cracking the Top 20 of the U.K. charts with 2022's Carpe Diem. Their 24th album, Hell, Fire and Damnation, arrived two years later.

Unlock Career Advancement & Life Fulfillment Through Our Expert-Led Personal Development & Transformation Course Bundle

Cher Possessor of an instantly recognizable voice that has powered numerous hits, both as half of Sonny & Cher and as a solo artist seemingly able to transcend any genre, Cher is a musical legend and a pop culture icon.