The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. They were among the most controversial, influential and unique rock acts of the 1960s and beyond, mostly because of Morrison's wild, poetic lyrics and charismatic but unpredictable stage persona. The Doors has been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines, including Rolling Stone, which ranked them 41st on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Doors were the first American band to accumulate eight consecutive gold and platinum LPs. The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

If Wishbone Ash can be considered a group who dabbled in the main strains of early-'70s British rock without ever settling on one (were they a prog rock outfit like Yes, a space rock unit like Pink Floyd, a heavy metal ensemble like Led Zeppelin, or just a boogie band like Ten Years After?), the confusion compounded by their relative facelessness and the generic nature of their compositions, Argus, their third album, was the one on which they looked like they finally were going to forge their own unique amalgamation of all those styles into a sound of their own. The album boasted extended compositions, some of them ("Time Was," "Sometime World") actually medleys of different tunes, played with assurance and developing into imaginative explorations of new musical territory and group interaction.

Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band, formed in The Hague in 1967. The band spawned a number of psychedelic rock hits throughout the counterculture movements era during the 1960s and early 1970s, including Never Marry a Railroad Man, Mighty Joe, Love Buzz, Blossom Lady, Inkpot and "Venus", the latter became their biggest hit, it went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and many other countries during 1969 and 1970. The band had sold 13.5 million discs by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974, when the hippie, flower power and other counterculture movements around the world began to decline in the mid-1970s.

If proof were needed that Roxette are the new ABBA, the lack of critical respect should be enough. Like Abba, Roxette is a masterful pop band (with just the right amount of kitsch in its armor) that routinely gets slagged off for lacking substance, whatever that may be. Room Service showcases a band at the top of its form with its feet firm on the pedal: this album is a case study in songcraft and pop smarts. With its na-na-na choruses and sparkly guitars, Room Service is also trademark Roxette, a mostly no-surprises package that divides its time between the soaring, emotive power ballads and the rife-with-hooks rock-dance stompers that the band pretty much took patents out on back in the '80s and '90s.

Water Sign is the fifth studio album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in 1983. The album reached #64 position on the UK album charts. "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat" was released as a single, initially peaking on the UK singles chart at #60 in 1983, while the re-recorded new version for his New Light Through Old Windows compilation album, reached #74 in 1988.

With their brilliant synthesis of folk and country, baroque and roll, San Francisco’s Beau Brummels made a major and lasting contribution to the lexicon of American popular music in the mid-1960s. ‘Turn Around: The Complete Recordings 1964-1970’ is the exhaustive overview of their legacy has so long deserved; presenting the band’s classic Autumn and Warner Brothers recordings in definitive fashion.

GOLD SERIES (2CD) 20-track hits set from local punk/pop legends + 21-track bonus rarities disc.
Ratcat became the first Australian alternative, guitar-driven band to crack the big time locally during the early '90s. Beginning with singer/guitarist Simon Day and bassist Victor Levi's garage band Danger Mouse, Ratcat's following in Sydney grew thanks to several live performances among the skate-punk scene. In December 1987, the band released their eponymous debut mini-LP on the Waterfront label. Their debut full-length album, The Nightmare, followed in 1989 and led to a deal with the rooArt label. They contributed the single "You Get Me By" to the label's various-artists compilation Youngblood II. But it was The Tingles EP, released in November 1990, that gave the band their biggest success. It raced to number one on the Australian national charts, as did the catchy single "Don't Go Now." The album, Blind Love, released in July 1991, also went to number one nationally. The band then opened for INXS' X tour as well as performed their own concerts. In September 1991, Ratcat toured the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., supporting such acts as Ride, Iggy Pop, Teenage Fanclub, Violent Femmes, and the Wonder Stuff. Ratcat released their next album, Insideout, in 1992, which featured a duet between Day and Falling Joys' Suzie Higgie. After two more EPs, Rain and The Smiler, were released in 1993, the Easy Rider album was finally completed and released in 1997.

From an era when funk soul brothers and sisters ruled the planet we celebrate ghetto classics and southern fried killers from Curtis Mayfield, The Jones Girls, Gil Scott-Heron, The Meters, Lee Dorsey, Joe Tex, Linda Clifford and many more.

Conventional wisdom has it that the French are not all that great at rock & roll – pop music, yes indeed, but not rock & roll – and no matter how many times people cite Metal Urbain, Stinky Toys, or Les Thugs, name-checking more than a tiny handful of French bands that really give up the rock is a challenge. But apparently there was a glorious window of time in the mid-'60s when France had a pretty lively rock scene, given the 28 good-to-excellent sides collected on Psychegaelic: French Freakbeat, which serves up a variety of Gallic rock, R&B, and acid-tinged garage rock tunes. The selection ranges from uptempo Merseybeat-style (or in this case Seinebeat-style) rockers like "Hello Josephine" by Les Witackers and straight-up garage rock such as Patrick Samson's rowdy translation of "Gloria" to the cool and bluesy organ-driven "Pourquoi l'Amour a Deux" by Les Fleurs de Pavot (the group name translates as "The Poppy Flowers," fans of not-so-subtle drug references), the fuzz-guitar mayhem of Benjamin's "Un Train," and less readily classifiable craziness like "Bof!" by the Brummels, "L.S.D. 25" by 5 Gentlemen, and "Fou" (literally "Crazy") by Jacques Da Sylva.

With her strong, bell-like voice, perfect timing, clear diction and unique phrasing – not to mention natural acting talent – Petula is the perfect duet partner, especially for warm male voices like Dean Martin, Perry Como, Matt Monro, Andy Williams and even Michael McDonald.However, Petula shows she can also blend quite nicely with the ladies too. She and Peggy Lee team up on a powerhouse rendition of "I'm A Woman" and Peggy mentioned years later how much she adored working with Petula. Probably most historic on this album of material – nearly all of which is not available elsewhere – is the pairing of two 1960s icons – Petula with Dusty Springfield. Legendary producer Brooks Arthur signed off on the completion of Dusty's unfinished 1974 recording of "Corner of The Sky" – the soulful favorite from the Broadway musical "Pippin'" (written by Stephen Schwartz), with Petula singing the missing parts as well as harmonizing with Dusty. An incredible moment in pop music.

Håkan Austbø has excellent credentials in this repertoire. His is an individual view, with a wider range of tempi and dynamic than Loriod. His account of the opening Regard du père and the later Regard du fils sur le fils is paced much more slowly, but his playing has great concentration and evocative feeling so that he readily carries the slower tempo, and in Par lui tout a été fait articulation is bolder, giving the music a stronger profile, helped by the clearer, Naxos digital focus. This is undoubtedly a performance that grips the listener and can be strongly recommended as an alternative view.

For many people Christmas time has come when the broadcasting stations start playing the specific music everybody knows and hears each year. However, not always music performed around Christmas has originally been composed for Christmas too. Especially our earliest and therefore most emotional memories are closely related to this festivity. The music we associate with these emotions does not necessarily have to be Christmassy, but should intensify and reflect those feelings.

The Symphony No. 9 in C major, D 944, known as The Great, is the final symphony completed by Franz Schubert. It was first published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1849 as "Symphonie / C Dur / für großes Orchester" and listed as Symphony No. 8 in the New Schubert Edition. Originally called The Great C major to distinguish it from his Symphony No. 6, the Little C major, the subtitle is now usually taken as a reference to the symphony's majesty. Unusually long for a symphony of its time, a typical performance of The Great lasts around one hour when all repeats indicated in the score are taken. The symphony was not professionally performed until a decade after Schubert's death in 1828.

Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30, was composed in the summer of 1909. The piece was premiered on November 28 of that year in New York City with the composer as soloist, accompanied by the New York Symphony Society under Walter Damrosch. The work has the reputation of being one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical piano repertoire.

It seems that Gary Bertini, like Gustav Mahler, is destined to be better remembered after his death than he was known during his life. When he passed away in 2005, he was little known outside Israel, Japan and continental Europe and nowhere near as widely recognised as the glamour conductors who appear on the пїЅmajorпїЅ labels. His recordings were few and hard to find. A year after his passing, Capriccio has launched a Gary Bertini Edition (see, for example, review) featuring live recordings drawn from the archives of the KпїЅlner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, and EMI has re-released his Mahler cycle.