How to Make Baby Laugh

The Nat King Cole Trio - The MacGregor Years, 1941-1945 (1995) {4CD Set Music and Arts PoA, CD-911}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 611 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 668 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 48 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1941-45, 1995 Music and Arts PoA | CD-911
Jazz / Swing / Vocal Jazz / Jump Blues / Traditional Pop

On this four-CD set are included the bulk of Nat King Cole's radio transcriptions of 1941 and 1944-45. Although the programming could be a little better (the complete sessions are not compiled strictly in chronological order), the music has a strong unity and is consistently enjoyable. Pianist-vocalist Cole and his trio (which also includes important contributions by guitarist Oscar Moore and either Johnny Miller or Wesley Prince on bass) are featured extensively both as a unit and as an accompanying group to singers Anita Boyer, Ida James, Anita O'Day and the Barrie Sisters on 33, 15, five and five songs respectively.

This is a great collection of rare and hard to find tunes compiled by Jeffrey Glenn. Hundreds of odds & ends by little known groups, famous singers, and famous singers before they became famous.

Wildweeds' sole album (they were no longer called "the" Wildweeds by the time it came out) is fair but non-eyebrow-raising country-rock. Cut with assistance from top Nashville session men Charlie McCoy, Weldon Myrick, and David Briggs, it's mild and easygoing, distinguished from the purely generic 1970 country-rock album by Al Anderson's likably gruff vocals. Anderson wrote all of the songs, with the exception of covers of Arthur Crudup's "My Baby Left Me," and they're pleasantly benign, without the striking tunes or penetrating lyrics needed to make a lasting impression. The better items include the up-tempo sh*t-kicker "Belle," where Anderson's vocal sounds more effectively strained and pinched, and the songs where there is a bit more pop influence in the melody, like "And When She Smiles"…

Chuck Berry - Rock And Roll Music: Any Old Way You Choose It (2014) {16CD Box Set Bear Family Records}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 6.53 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 2.90 Gb | Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 37 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Bear Family Records | BCD 17273 PL
Rhythm & Blues / Blues / Rock & Roll / Early R&B

Chuck Berry fanatics, your ship has come in, and it’s the Queen Mary — or maybe we should call it the Queen Maybellene. As you’d expect from the Bear Family label, which specializes in gargantuan reissues, this 16-CD, 396-song box doesn’t simply span Berry’s career, it embraces virtually every musical note the man has ever issued. You’ll find all of his released album tracks and singles, starting with an obscure 1954 recording and including everything from the Chess, Mercury and Atco labels, plus every surviving alternate take. Also here are five CDs’ worth of concert performances from 1956 to 1972.

The Top 100 '60s Rock Albums represent the moment when popular music came of age. In the earliest part of the decade, bands were still regularly referencing earlier sounds and themes. By the middle, something powerful and distinct was happening, which is why the latter part of the '60s weighs so heavily on our list. A number of bands evolved alongside fast-emerging trends of blues rock, folk rock, psychedelia and hard rock, adding new complexities to the music even as the songs themselves became more topical. If there's a thread running through the Top 100 '60s Rock Albums and this period of intense change, it has to do with the forward-thinking artists who managed to echo and, in some cases, advance the zeitgeist. Along the way, legends were made.

Leon Russell's accolades are monumental in a number of categories, from songwriting (he wrote Joe Cocker's "Delta Lady") to session playing (with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, just to name a few) to his solo work. Unfortunately, it's the last category that never really attracted as much attention as it should have, despite a multitude of blues-based gospel recordings and piano-led, Southern-styled rock albums released throughout the 1970s. Leon Russell and the Shelter People is a prime example of Russell's instrumental dexterity and ability to produce some energetic rock & roll. Poignant and expressive tracks such as "Of Thee I Sing," "Home Sweet Oklahoma," and "She Smiles Like a River" all lay claim to Russell's soulful style and are clear-cut examples of the power that he musters through his spirited piano playing and his voice. His Dylan covers are just as strong, especially "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "It Takes a Lot to Laugh," while "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "It's a Hard Rain Gonna Fall" have him sounding so forceful, they could have been Russell's own.

The ultimate compendium of a half century of the best music, now revised and updated. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a highly readable list of the best, the most important, and the most influential pop albums from 1955 through today. Carefully selected by a team of international critics and some of the best-known music reviewers and commentators, each album is a groundbreaking work seminal to the understanding and appreciation of music from the 1950s to the present. Included with each entry are production details and credits as well as reproductions of original album cover art. Perhaps most important of all, each album featured comes with an authoritative description of its importance and influence.