Al+green

Prior to this album, Al Green never had a number one song. The title track, "Let's Stay Together," achieved that status and held it for nine consecutive weeks. Green's ingenuity produced one of the all-time classics, which has the bounce of a dance cut and the passion of a ballad…

Other than a couple of albums for tiny collector's labels, this Muse album was Al Cohn's first album as a leader since 1962. Cohn had spent much of the interim as a full-time writer for studios and was finally returning to active playing. He renewed his musical partnership with Zoot Sims on this quintet date for Muse, which also includes pianist Jaki Byard, bassist George Duvivier and drummer Mel Lewis…

Paul's first album for Philadelphia International was straight club jazz; sales were slow. This time, Gamble & Huff gave Paul material strong enough to make his sophomore release a viable commercial entity…

Almost anything could be called "driving music" if one drives to it, so this four-disc set of songs to drive to takes that theme pretty loosely for the most part, but it does include some classic odes to the joys and hazards of motion and movement like Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone," Ram Jam's "Black Betty," Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train," Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," the Edgar Winter Group's "Free Ride," and, of course, Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again," among dozens of other would-be road anthems.