Summer o Love

Time Life presents 'Flower Power: Music Of The Love Generation.' Our 10-CD, 175-track set is full of the artists and songs who defined the Baby Boomer generation - it's a box full of memories that will bring listeners back in time to an unforgettable era.This late–60s and early-'70s pop culture phenomena had many facets, from free love and psychedelia to
anti-war and hippies. This vivid youth movement was reflected in the music… the world listened and has never been the same again.

Summer Breeze: The Best of the Isley Brothers, a two-disc release from Sony Australia's Camden Deluxe division, actually focuses on the group's T-Neck years, from 1969's It's Our Thing through 1979's Winner Take All…

In 1991 all living original Beach Boys members (except Brian Wilson, still under the care of his abusive psychologist Gene Landy) returned to the studio with Terry Melcher to record their follow-up to “Kokomo” with the album Summer in Paradise. This marked the first and only Beach Boys studio album that Brian Wilson had no participation in whatsoever. Produced entirely on a Macintosh Quadra computer, Summer in Paradise was recorded using a Beta version of Pro Tools with a rhythm section that was almost entirely synthesized. Despite its effort to be “the quintessential soundtrack of summer” the album quickly turned into an unmitigated disaster: musically, lyrically, and commercially. Al Jardine was suspended from the band in the early stages of the recording due to a “severe attitude problem,” however he was reinstated in final weeks leading up to the completion the project.

Donna Summer's contribution to Universal's mid-priced 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection series is a decent, concise look at the queen of disco's career, including such natural choices as "Love to Love You Baby," "I Feel Love," "Bad Girls," "Hot Stuff," and "On the Radio," as well as early-'80s hits like "She Works Hard for the Money" and "Love Is in Control." 1995's Endless Summer remains the best single-disc introduction, since it covers more territory, presents a more rounded look, and includes many other singles that charted, but this works perfectly for those who want to stick to the basics.

In the late '80s, the Mike Stock/Matt Aitken/Pete Waterman team was as important to European dance-pop as Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte had been to Euro-disco in the late '70s. Many pop critics hated Stock/Aitken/Waterman's slick, high-gloss approach with a passion, but what critics like and what the public buys are often two different things – and the British team had the Midas touch when it came to Dead or Alive, Samantha Fox, Rick Astley, and other '80s favorites. So, for Donna Summer, working with them was a logical decision when, in 1989, she made a temporary return to a Euro-dance-pop setting.

In the late '80s, the Mike Stock/Matt Aitken/Pete Waterman team was as important to European dance-pop as Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte had been to Euro-disco in the late '70s. Many pop critics hated Stock/Aitken/Waterman's slick, high-gloss approach with a passion, but what critics like and what the public buys are often two different things – and the British team had the Midas touch when it came to Dead or Alive, Samantha Fox, Rick Astley, and other '80s favorites. So, for Donna Summer, working with them was a logical decision when, in 1989, she made a temporary return to a Euro-dance-pop setting.