Best 100 Music

Electrifying conductor, brilliant composer, gifted pianist, inspiring teacher: Leonard Bernstein is one of the most famous and influential musicians of all time. Highlights of this two-disc sampling of the Maestro’s legendary recordings for Deutsche Grammophon include his incandescent interpretations of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Mahler, composers for whom he felt a profound affinity. And Bernstein’s lifelong dedication to American music is vividly illustrated with Gershwin, Barber and, of course, his own iconic West Side Story.

The '60s pop outfit the Happenings enjoyed a three-year run of several hit singles late in the decade. Formed in 1961 in Patterson, NJ, the group has seen their lineup change from time to time, but founding member/lead singer Bob Miranda has been a constant member through it all…

As this has a mixture of rare singles and unreleased tracks from 1965-1969, it's primarily for converted Music Machine fans, not for those who want just one album by the group or a place to start investigation. That said, it's a pretty interesting assortment of odds and ends, a few of which are among the band's best efforts. Foremost among them is the explosive (and quite innovative for its time) 1966 number "Point of No Return" with its unusual mixture of folk-rock and pre-acid guitar work, as well as a magnificent anguished, subtly anti-war vocal by singer and songwriter Sean Bonniwell. The moody, building-from-a-smolder-to-a-roar "Dark White," a 1969 outtake, was already heard on the out-of-print Rhino best-of LP. It's also one of Bonniwell's better creations, as well as one of the best lyrical meditations upon the ambiguous tension of sexual desire that you're likely to hear…

Seiji Ozawa has been music director of the Vienna State Opera since the 2002-03 season and is an annual and favored guest of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Prior to his Vienna State Opera appointment he served as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for twenty-nine seasons (1973-2002)—the longest-serving music director in the orchestra’s history…

First Harvest: The Best of Alphaville 1984-1992 collects 15 tracks from the Europop darlings, marking the first "real" Alphaville compilation to span the group's entire career (1988's barren Singles Collection featured only four tracks in various states of mixdown). Cut from the same cloth as Ultravox and early Depeche Mode, the band had better success in Germany than it did in the United States, but standout cuts such as "Big in Japan," "Forever Young," "Red Rose," and "Jerusalem" reside in the upper echelon of early-'80s synth pop.

B'z The Best XXV 1988-1998 is a compilation album by the Japanese hard rock duo B'z. It was released on June 12, 2013, simultaneously with B'z The Best XXV 1999-2012, and it is part of their 25th anniversary celebration. It reached #1 at Oricon charts and Billboard Japan Top Albums…