Best His

Canadian only 13-track collection spans the years 1987 through 1997. Highlights includes a duet with U2 on 'Sweet Fire of Love', 'Showdown at the Big Sky' which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Mainstream rock chart' and 'Broken Arrow' which was a hit single for Rod Stewart in 1991…

New Light Through Old Windows is a significant baker's dozen of Chris Rea's early material, leading up to but not including work from his Road to Hell album. Rea's stature was always larger in the United Kingdom than in the U.S., with his only American Top 40 single coming from the newer version of "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," a re-release of the same song which failed to garner any attention the first time around. Rea's soothing voice is indeed attractive, and the songs that are included on this set are wisely chosen examples of his smooth style…

It's no secret that there's a deep animosity between Van Halen – particularly their leader, guitarist Edward (formerly Eddie) Van Halen – and their former frontman, David Lee Roth. His 1985 departure was acrimonious, and while his solo career paled in comparison to Van Halen's continued success with Sammy Hagar as their frontman, the group never escaped the shadow of Diamond Dave…

An overview of Teddy Bunn's recording activities during the 1930s reveals a skilled guitarist working shoulder to shoulder with many of the top jazz musicians of his generation, invariably bringing out the best in every participant, for as he himself frankly explained: "I have a very good ear and can usually sense what the cats are going to play a split second before they do it." Born in Freeport, Long Island, in 1909, Theodore Leroy "Teddy" Bunn grew up in a multi-instrumental family and gained his first professional experience accompanying a calypso singer. Bunn's recording debut took place on September 16, 1929. On that day he made records with Walter "Fats" Pichon and Henry "Red" Allen as well as Duke Ellington's Cotton Club Orchestra…

Matthew Best began his career as a bass, singing at Covent Garden and at other leading operatic venues throughout the world. But since the mid-'80s he has turned increasingly toward conducting, recording many choral/orchestral and operatic works for Hyperion Records. Over the years his singing range has changed as well, placing him in the category of bass-baritone and including roles such as Scarpia and Amfortas.

One of the best recordings in Chess Records' 50th Anniverary series is the first of two bookend Muddy Waters collections, His Best 1947-55. Documenting Waters's most creatively and commercially successful years at Aristocrat/Chess, this collection begins with his formative years and ends with Waters at his peak. So you're in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues; what's to criticize? Superb remasterings of "I Can't Be Satisfied", "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "I'm Ready", and "Mannish Boy" are simply beyond reproach. With simple bass accompaniment from Ernest "Big" Crawford, Waters's bottleneck tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues. And listening to Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Rogers piece together (and perfect very quickly) the classic Chicago sound is pure blues epiphany. At the very least, this collection shows you why Waters's rollicking stop-time classics like "Mannish Boy" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" have sparked endless imitations over the years–and why nobody has played them better since.

Best known for his string of late-'80s MOR blues-pop hit singles, Middlesbrough's biggest musical export Chris Rea has spent the best part of the noughties reinventing himself as a Tom Waits-esque troubadour with a series of ambitious and often gargantuan-sized albums focusing on the vintage slide guitar blues sounds that influenced his hugely successful 30-year career. More up to date than 1994's The Best Of and more extensive than 2005's Heartbeats, Still So Far to Go is the husky-voiced guitarist's first hits collection to place as much emphasis on his later more revered and prolific output as his more familiar and commercial airplay staples. Spanning four decades, the comprehensive two-CD, 34-track compilation features material from his 1978 debut Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? (his biggest U.S. hit, "Fool [If You Think It's Over]") right up to 2005's mammoth 11-disc offering Blue Guitars ("Somewhere Between Highway 61 & 49"), including the 1996 soundtrack La Passione ("When the Grey Skies Turn to Blue") to his self-penned film of the same name.