Title: We'd Like To Teach The World To Sing Artist: New Seekers And they sure did teach the world to sing, thanks to a massive advertising campaign by Coca-Cola that used the hit title track as its theme song! Which caused some to mutter "sellout" back at a time when having your music used on a commercial was considered crass, but lest ye judge too harshly, this album includes covers of songs by such thoroughly hip sources as Richard Thompson and Roy Wood. And that title cut is just too irresistible…some body on Madison Ave. sure knew what they were doing! Includes 'Tonight; Too Many Trips to Nowhere; Wanderer’s Song; Boom Town; Evergreen; I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony); Nickel Song; Lay Me Down; No Man’s Land; Sweet Louise; Good Old Fashioned Music', and... Less

Liner Note Author: Al Fichera. Collectables' Great Men of Rock & Roll: The 50s collects 25 songs from the archives of labels that Universal Music owns, including such legendary imprints as Decca, Chess, Polygram, and Duke. Many of the artists included are legendary as well; names like Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Conway Twitty, and Buddy Holly certainly live up to the title of the compilation. Many are less well-known but their songs are familiar, including Mark Dinning ("Teen Angel"), Johnny Preston ("Running Bear"), and Jim Lowe ("The Green Door"). None of the tracks are bad selections, and though it doesn't paint an exact portrait of '50s rock & roll, you could do much worse than this if you were looking for such an item. ~ Tim Sendra

Full Title - Laurie, Sabina & United Artists Sides Vol. 1. Hailing from the Bronx, The Belmonts took their name from the area's Belmont Avenue. With Dion they scored such hits as 'A Teenager In Love' (No 5) but this was a short relationship & after Dion went solo, they continued to gain hits with such songs as 'Tell Me Why' (No 18), 'Come On Little Angel' (No 28), 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' (No 57) & the doo wop classic 'I Need Someone' (No 75). This CD features 30 tracks, not only sides made for Laurie & Sabina (many previously unissued) but also, for the first time ever, their complete United Artists recordings from 1964 (spread over this & its companion CD & including two previously unreleased tracks). The music tells both the story of a group that was a very important... Less

Personnel: Jonathan Richman (vocals, guitar); Jonathan Richman; Greg "Curly" Keranan (bass instrument); Ron Wilson (drums). Recording information: Bennett House, Grass Valley, CA.Photographer: Carol Fondé.Leave it to Jonathan Richman to self-title an album after he's well into his second decade as a recording artist. (But then again, many of his releases were so minimally titled that they were, in a sense, self-titled, for example JONATHAN SINGS! and I, JONATHAN). This 1989 album quietly rocks with just Jonathan, his guitar and some hand-claps, foot-stomps and an occasional cowbell. It includes everything from instrumental covers ("Blue Moon" and "Sleepwalk") to fine new entries in the Richman songbook ("Everyday Clothes," "A Mistake Today For Me," "Closer"). There's the novelty inclusion... Less

Full title - American Roots of the British Invasion. Features the original American hit versions of the songs that inspired the British invasion. This is the only CD compilation to pay homage to the entire British Invasion movement. Previous compilations only scratch the surface with tributes to single artist. This compilation contains many songs that have been nearly impossible to find in any form, including 'Hippy Hippy Shake', 'Devil In Her Heart', 'My Buddy Lollipop' and 'Mr. Moonlight.' 20 tracks. 2002.

Full Title - Laurie, Sabina & United Artists Sides Vol. 1. Hailing from the Bronx, The Belmonts took their name from the area's Belmont Avenue. With Dion they scored such hits as 'A Teenager In Love' (No 5) but this was a short relationship & after Dion went solo, they continued to gain hits with such songs as 'Tell Me Why' (No 18), 'Come On Little Angel' (No 28), 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' (No 57) & the doo wop classic 'I Need Someone' (No 75). This CD features 30 tracks, not only sides made for Laurie & Sabina (many previously unissued) but also, for the first time ever, their complete United Artists recordings from 1964 (spread over this & its companion CD & including two previously unreleased tracks). The music tells both the story of a group that was a very important... Less

Check out the artists and song titles on this disc. They'll serve as a once 'n' final warning for anyone thinkin' they've just scored some nostalgic good vibrations from the feelin' groovy sixties (Congratulations, you're about to buy the wrong collection, bub). No, what we have here is the untold, bad-attitude underbelly of that decade's rock 'n' revolution; a teenage nation that churned out thousands of raging garage records that rarely escaped Hometown U.S.A. obscurity. These are the 45 rpm singles too extreme for their time…

Includes liner notes by Gene Weed.Personnel: Terry Stafford (vocals).Liner Note Author: Gene Weed.Arranger: Bob Summers.Terry Stafford became one of only a few artists who managed to "steal" a hit from Elvis Presley by covering one of his album tracks -- in this case "Suspicion" from Presley's album Potluck. You wouldn't necessarily realize from that track the extent to which Stafford is a Presley sound-alike, but he is in the same category of great Elvis imitators such as Vince Everett and Ral Donner. "Suspicion" was Stafford's biggest hit by far, but he enjoyed two other hits on the Crusader label in 1964. "I'll Touch a Star" was a big one on the adult contemporary charts, and "Follow the Rainbow" missed the Top 100 by one position. Suspicion is a reissue of Stafford's 1964 album, and... Less

Full Title - Classic '80's - 18 Gotta-Have Hits!. These 18 hits are 80's favorites that defined this emerging MTV generation, and the songs are such pop classics that even after twenty years they still sound sooooo tubular. Bring early music videos to life again with this CD thats full of all your favorite dance tunes and ballads from that unforgettable decade. Artists include Tears For Fears, Starship, Kool & The Gang, Culture Club, Men At Work & many more. 2002.

Full Title - Classic '80's - 18 Gotta-Have Hits!. These 18 hits are 80's favorites that defined this emerging MTV generation, and the songs are such pop classics that even after twenty years they still sound sooooo tubular. Bring early music videos to life again with this CD thats full of all your favorite dance tunes and ballads from that unforgettable decade. Artists include Tears For Fears, Starship, Kool & The Gang, Culture Club, Men At Work & many more. 2002.

During the doo wop era groups often toured in packages, taking the stage for a quick set of four or five songs, and then clearing out of the way for the next act to do their four or five songs. And in some ways that's what this "meets" series from Collectables feels like, combining songs from two doo wop artists at five songs apiece. While the disc largely fails to highlight the strengths of either band (Little Eva, the Raindrops), you're bound to hear a song or two you like. And considering that the series is budget priced, it's a trade-off. Call it the briefest of introductions to each artist, just like those old package concert tours.

Boyce & Hart, best known as frequent songwriters for the Monkees, were among the more successful West Coast pop/rock composers of the late '60s, also landing some material with other artists and making some records of their own, including the hit "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight." Only six of these 18 tracks were recorded by the Boyce & Hart duo (another was recorded by Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart). But since Boyce & Hart's principal importance came from their songwriting rather than their performing, this compilation -- which matches the most notable Boyce & Hart recordings with the best and most famous cuts by other artists covering Boyce-Hart compositions -- is the best representative sampling of their most important music. Other than "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite," Boyce &... Less

During the doo wop era groups often toured in packages, taking the stage for a quick set of four or five songs, and then clearing out of the way for the next act to do their four or five songs. And in some ways that's what this "meets" series from Collectables feels like, combining songs from two doo wop artists at five songs apiece. While the disc largely fails to highlight the strengths of either band (Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, the Elegants), you're bound to hear a song or two you like. And considering that the series is budget priced, it's a trade-off. Call it the briefest of introductions to each artist, just like those old package concert tours.

As the title implies, SINGS SONGS OF LOVE is a compilation of Patsy Cline's romatically inclined material, from throughout her all-too-short career.Producer: Owen Bradley. Compilation producer: Bob Zipkin. Personnel: Patsy Cline (vocals).As budget compilations go, this one actually has a reason to live; in fact, it's got a concept - Cline singing romantic ballads - that actually makes sense, both musically and thematically. It's also helpful that most of these songs were recorded around the same time (early '60s), which means that the instrumental backing - twangy guitars, the piano banging out triplets, Jordannaires style chorus vocals - has a nice consistency. Several of Cline's biggest hits are here of course ("Crazy," "Sweet Dreams," "I Fall to Pieces"), but there are also excellent,... Less

2 LPs on 1 CD: SURFIN' SAFARI (1962)/SURFIN' USA (1963).The Beach Boys: Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dave Marks, Mike Love, Al Jardine.Recorded at Capitol, Western, Conway Studios, Hollywood, California. Includes liner notes by David Leaf.Heard in retrospect after PET SOUNDS or TODAY!, the Beach Boys' first album may sound somewhat embryonic. In the context of its time, however, SURFIN' SAFARI is a solid and entertaining listen filled with songs based on everyday middle-class teen life in early-1960s California. Foremost among these is the group's first hot-rod tune, "409." In some ways an even better song than "Surfin' Safari" (the bigger hit on the other side of their first Capitol single), "409" isn't as full of car-spotter lingo as the group's later hot-rod singles (most... Less

"Beach Music In My Soul", the new release from East Tennessee band "C. Vaughn Leslie & Boys' Night Out", features a selection of some of the greatest Soul, Rhythm & Blues, and Carolina Beach Music hits from the sixties, given a fresh treatment by BNO's seven-piece horn section. Included are hits from such artists as Otis Redding, The Temptations, Sam & Dave, and The Drifters, among others. The album also features two original tunes. The title song, "Beach Music in My Soul", sets the theme for the CD. It was written by BNO's own keyboardist, Clint Eskew, and is quickly becoming a favorite among beach music fans everywhere. The second original tune, "Like Me", is a slow, love ballad written by Eddie Swann of Asheville, North Carolina and arranged by Clint Eskew. As one of our fans told us,... Less

As Motown's endless wave of reissue collections goes, the Classic Hits series is at the bottom of the barrel -- typically clocking in with only about a half hour's worth of music, each compilation also comes minus liner notes and without any logical thematic unity behind its song selection. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with classic singles like Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike," the Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and Mary Wells' underrated "Bye Bye Baby," of course; it's just that when all are readily available on other, better Motown collections, this third volume becomes as irrelevant as all the others in the series. ~ Jason Ankeny

'Roy Orbison's songs were not so much about dreams as like dreams'-Tom Waits. Scheduled to arrive just in time for Valentine's Day, this 41 track Virgin UK compilation includes 12 Billboard Top 40 hits, 'Crying', 'Only The Lonely', 'Oh, Pretty Women', 'Leah', 'It's Over', 'Breaking Up Is Breaking My Heart', 'Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)', 'You Got It', 'In Dreams', 'Blue Bayou' and 'Goodnight'. Additional high lights include his remake of 'Crying' with KD Lang and 'She's A Mystery To Me', cowritten by Bono of U2. Slimline double jewel case. 2001 release.

Flat Earth Society ('60s Psychedelia): Phil Dubuque (vocals, guitar, recorder); Kyle Garrahan, Ted Myers (vocals, guitar); Walter Powers (vocals, organ, bass guitar); Willie Alexander (vocals, keyboards); Rick Doyle (guitar, tambourine, background vocals); Jack Kervian (piano, organ, background vocals); Paul Carter (bass guitar, background vocals); Lee Mason (drums, percussion); Curt Girard (drums).Flat Earth Society's Waleeco is a mid-level psychedelic organ-and-guitar-d riven rock record, with a more focused sense of song construction than many such efforts in the late '60s, although the results aren't all that special. A highlight is "Shadows," which sounds like a super tough variation on the Association. [The 2006 CD reissue combines Waleeco with material that the Lost, another Boston... Less

During the doo wop era groups often toured in packages, taking the stage for a quick set of four or five songs, and then clearing out of the way for the next act to do their four or five songs. And in some ways that's what this "meets" series from Collectables feels like, combining songs from two doo wop artists at five songs apiece. While the disc largely fails to highlight the strengths of either band (the Marcels, the Avons), you're bound to hear a song or two you like. And considering that the series is budget priced, it's a trade-off. Call it the briefest of introductions to each artist, just like those old package concert tours.

During the decade that bridged the first flowering of rock 'n' roll and the rise of self-sufficient writer- performers such as Bob Dylan and the Beatles, the record charts were dominated by artists who, in the main, did not write their own material. At this time an exciting crop of talented young songwriters began to emerge.Over the last couple of years we have built up an impressive series of songwriter-based compilations focusing on the work of Burt Bacharach, Jackie DeShannon, Randy Newman and the Leiber & Stoller, Pomus & Shuman, Greenwich & Barry, Mann & Weil and Goffin & King teams.Honey & Wine is our second foray into the songbook of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, one of the most lauded songwriting partnerships of all-time. As with our earlier volume, the set includes familiar hits... Less

A pretty broad title for a compilation that is certainly not a survey of Texas rockabilly as a whole, but a 28-song overview (spanning 1956-64) of the output of the tiny Sarg label, which operated out of Luling, TX (near San Antonio). Sarg never had a national hit, and indeed never had the expectation that the records would do more than get some regional airplay on Texas and Louisiana stations. None of these performers went on to make a bigger name, and the only one that might excite even a bit of name recognition is Link Davis, a veteran of country and western swing who had a country hit with "Big Mamou" in the late '40s. If there's anything to distinguish this from some of the other small-time vintage rockabilly anthologies on the market, it's a larger-than-normal country influence on... Less

Release Date: 2000-11-02, Audio CD, Our Heritage

2002 remake of his 1970 classic features the vocals of opera star Alessandro Safina & aids the Sports Relief charity. Tracks, 'Your Song', 'Your Song' (Instrumental) & the video feat. David Beckham.

This amazing 28 track collection (2 CD's) contains some of Dean's most beautiful work. Classic songs like Saturday Fathers, Jennifer's Baby, Sandy, Hob-Nobbin', The Dolphins Were Dancing, Little Black Cloud, Dodo, Where Have All The Angels Flown? This content rich, double CD deals thematically with the stuff of ordinary and not-so-ordinary lives. It is a powerful, mature and sophisticated work by a master songsmith at the peak of his craft. These are real songs about real life and real people covering topics such as divorce, adultery, adoption, birth and death and comic books? Yes, comic books. Like real life, Friedman’s music can be difficult to describe but it never fails to amaze, delight, move and entertain. This stunning, long awaited collection will further solidify Friedman’s... Less

12 tracks. Liner notes by Marty Pekar. Two tiny pinch marks on booklet from lid. Light scuffs on disc will not affect play.

This is the first of Bear Family's DRUGSTORE ROCK & ROLL single artist compilations, similar to the GONNA SHAKE THIS SHACK and ROCKS series, except a little more wholesome this time. And what better way to start than to feature the clean-cut rockabilly/countr y artist Grorge Hamilton IV (no relation to the actor). Hamilton's two breakout hits, 1956's "A Rose and A Baby Ruth" and 1963's "Abilene" (both penned by Nashville legend John D. Loudermilk) are included, of course, as are any number of other key songs, including another major charter, 1960's "Before This Day Ends," on a 32-track deluxe set. There is also a 44-page booklet complete with numerous historical photos taken from Hamilton's personal collection.

The last time Bruce Springsteen ventured West for inspiration, the result was the desolate Nebraska and its tales of serial killers and used cars. On his first record in three years, Springsteen navigates barren deserts and Old West war fields for a dozen forlorn songs that co-star the artist and his acoustic guitar. Though he's always had a knack for carving out the hooks and melodies that make each journey memorable, this time around Springsteen relies on the lyrics to carry the tune-desperate tales of tragedy, heartbreak, and lust with a Latino twist, like the boxer coming home ("The Hitter"), a distressing border-crossing incident ("Matamoros Banks"), and the Nevada hooker with good intentions ("Reno," which led to the warning sticker Adult Imagery). With no E Street Band in the mix,... Less

One composer: 53 songs, 48 artists. This ambitious & expansive double CD set seeks to redress the imbalance in the crowded Burt Bacharach reissue market. A Double CD with 53 tracks & 145 minutes of music, featuring some of the most elusive & interesting recordings of Burt Bacharach compositions - by American, British & Australian artists from the 50s, 60s & 70s. Bacharach masterpieces rendered by pop, soul, blues, country, folk, ballad & even dance artists - many tracks never before available on CD. Artists include Marty Robbins, Tommy Sands, Julie Rodgers, Gene Pitney, Etta James, Marianne Faithful, Englebert Humberdink & more. Presented with a 16 page color booklet, this treasure trove of pop delights comes with dozens of photographs & revealing liner notes. Raven Records. 2003.

20 Greatest Hits 1962 collects some of the year's most memorable pop and rock hits, including Del Shannon's "Hats off to Larry," the Crystals' "And Then He Kissed Me," Skeeter Davis' "End of the World," the Jive Five's "My True Story," and Barbara George's "I Know." Songs by the Angels, the Belmonts, the Duprees, and Gene Pitney complete this retrospective of 1962's musical memories. ~ Heather Phares