Wild 90 (1968)

Steppenwolf entered the studio for their recording debut with a lot of confidence – based on a heavy rehearsal schedule before they ever got signed – and it shows on this album, a surprisingly strong debut album from a tight hard rock outfit who was obviously searching for a hook to hang their sound on. The playing is about as loud and powerful as anything being put out by a major record label in 1968, though John Kay's songwriting needed some development before their in-house repertory would catch up with their sound and musicianship. On this album, the best material came from outside the ranks of the active bandmembers: "Born to Be Wild" by ex-member Mars Bonfire, which became not only a chart-topping high-energy anthem for the counterculture (a status solidified by its use in Dennis Hopper's movie Easy Rider the following year), but coined the phrase heavy metal, thus giving a genre-specific name to the brand of music that the band played (and which was already manifesting itself in the work of bands like Vanilla Fudge and the just-emerging Led Zeppelin)…

The Doors' 1967 albums had raised expectations so high that their third effort was greeted as a major disappointment. With a few exceptions, the material was much mellower, and while this yielded some fine melodic ballad rock in "Love Street," "Wintertime Love," "Summer's Almost Gone," and "Yes, the River Knows," there was no denying that the songwriting was not as impressive as it had been on the first two records…

Remembered chiefly as proto-punkers who reached the top of the charts with the "caveman rock" of "Wild Thing" (1966), the Troggs were also adept at crafting power pop and ballads. Hearkening back to a somewhat simpler, more basic British Invasion approach as psychedelia began to explode in the late '60s, the group also reached the Top Five with their flower-power ballad "Love Is All Around" in 1968. While more popular in their native England than the U.S., the band also fashioned memorable, insistently riffing hit singles like "With a Girl Like You," "Night of the Long Grass," and the notoriously salacious "I Can't Control Myself" between 1966 and 1968. Paced by Reg Presley's lusting vocals, the group - which composed most of their own material - could crunch with the best of them, but were also capable of quite a bit more range and melodic invention than they've been given credit for.

In 1997, BGO released Cellophane/Mixed Bag, which contained two complete albums – Cellophane (1967, originally released on Page One) and Mixed Bag (1968, also originally released on Page One) – by the Troggs on one compact disc…

The first six volumes of this unauthorized series of Dave Clark Five CD reissues contain everything from the 12 non-compilation LPs the group issued in the U.S. between 1964-1968, as well as everything from the four U.K. LPs (never issued in the U.S.) that followed in 1969-1972. The seventh and final volume contains 25 tracks that somehow didn't find a place on any of those LPs.

This double-disc overview collection of British super guitarist Peter Green. By concentrating on a 20-year period, listeners get a solid selection of Green's creative genius with Fleetwood Mac, his spotty early solo records when his disintegration begins, and his tentative but still brilliant first return to music-making as well as a pair of sideman gigs with Bob Brunning's Sunflower Blues Band tossed in for good measure. There are only two live cuts in the batch, Boston Tea Party-era versions of "Black Magic Woman" and a cover of Duster Bennett's "Jumping at Shadows," and a wildly interspersed series of solo album cuts, Mac singles, and LP grooves like the juxtaposition of Green's "Lost My Love" with FM's "Fast Talking Woman Blues."

The Doors Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm features a live radio broadcast from September 20, 1968 which has never before received an official release. The comprehensive set includes rare live performances of "Mack The Knife, " "Money (That's What I Want)" and "The Hill Dwellers." It's a great sounding recording of a great performance of The Doors during their infamous 1968 European Tour with Jefferson Airplane. Recorded for an FM broadcast, The Doors' two sets of music that night are considered among the tour's best. The band is tight, and Jim Morrison's vocals are smooth as silk.