Having released two previous albums and a soundtrack, along with a stream of singles, over the previous 12 and a half months, the Lovin' Spoonful assembled their third regular studio LP, Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful, for release around Thanksgiving 1966. It contained the group's chart-topping single from the previous June, "Summer in the City," along with September's Top Ten hit "Rain on the Roof" (curiously titled "You and Me and Rain on the Roof" on the LP)…

The Ugly Ducklings were probably the best-known Canadian garage rock group of the mid-'60s. Formed in Toronto's famed Yorkville area in 1965, the band flourished in the many coffeehouses around the Yorkville district as a Rolling Stones cover band before becoming the Ugly Ducklings and attracting the attention of the local independent Yorktown Records label. The band recorded a single, "Nothin'," which became a Canadian hit, and opened for the Rolling Stones in 1966 when the Stones played Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. The bandmembers were quickly becoming local heroes, and in 1967 the album Somewhere Outside was released on Yorktown. The album contained nine original compositions as well as two cover songs…

Fresh Cream represents so many different firsts, it's difficult to keep count. Cream, of course, was the first supergroup, but their first album not only gave birth to the power trio, it also was instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and the birth of jam rock…

Simon & Garfunkel's first masterpiece, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was also the first album on which the duo, in tandem with engineer Roy Halee, exerted total control from beginning to end, right down to the mixing, and it is an achievement akin to the Beatles' Revolver or the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, and just as personal and pointed as either of those records at their respective bests…

Spanish Rice is the 1966 album by Clark Terry & Chico O' Farrill. Originally released by Impulse, this was released by the Verve Music Group on 9 March, 2004 and is remastered by someone not mentioned in the credits.

The Big Blues Harmonica Of Ben Benay is a 1966 album by harmonica player Ben Benay. Released by Capitol, this is said to be his only album. This was ripped from vinyl.

The year 1965 was a turning point in the life of John Coltrane. It was at this point that he crossed the line into the free jazz arena that he had been approaching since the early '60s. Besides his landmark Ascension, no album better illustrates this than the awe-inspiring Meditations. Coltrane's regular quartet - McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) - is expanded here with second drummer Rashied Ali (who assumed Jones' spot after this album) and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. This conglomeration produces some dense textures, especially in the epic first track "The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost." This sonic hurricane is a 13-minute outpouring of spiritual emotion that is at once compelling and exhausting…

"Chér" is the eponymous 3d studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on September 1966 by Imperial. Cher collaborates again with Sonny Bono, with Harold Battiste and with Stan Ross. The album is by-and-large a covers album and contains only one song written by Bono. This album was a moderate commercial success, charted #59 on the Billboard Chart. "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" is the 7th studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released in September 1971 by Kapp Records. For this album, Cher left her husband Sonny Bono to produce the album, and for the first time she collaborated with Snuff Garrett and with Al Capps for the arrangements. The album was retitled after the success of the single of the same name. It received positive reviews from critics, and the RIAA certified it Gold on July 2, 1972. The album was her first and most successful album of the 70s. Two singles were released from the album, "The Way of Love" and "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves", both reaching the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

This Collectables compilation packages Esther Phillips' first two LPs for Atlantic, 1965's And I Love Him! and the following year's Esther Phillips Sings. Gradually switching from an R&B chart name to a pop singer with a subtle power over the blues and jazz, Phillips didn't hit the charts much during the year ("And I Love Him" was the big exception), but she did record great versions of some solid material: "Shangri-La," "It's All Right With Me," "Every Time We Say Goodbye," and others. The sound is solid as well, leaving this collection as a great next step after the Atlantic wrap-up, The Best of Esther Phillips (1962-1970).

East Broadway Run Down is a 1966 album by American saxophonist Sonny Rollins. This is from a remaster released in 1995 by Impulse.

Blonde on Blonde is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in mid 1966, on Columbia Records. Blonde on Blonde completed the trilogy of rock albums that Dylan recorded in 1965 and 1966, starting with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. Critics often rank Blonde on Blonde as one of the greatest albums of all time. Combining the expertise of Nashville session musicians with a modernist literary sensibility, the album's songs have been described as operating on a grand scale musically, while featuring lyrics one critic called "a unique mixture of the visionary and the colloquial". It was one of the first double albums in rock music.

This LP features John Coltrane in two different settings. "Vigil" and the spiritual ballad "Welcome" showcase tenor saxophonist Coltrane with his classic quartet (pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones) in June 1965. Dating from October 14, 1965, it adds tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, Donald Garrett on bass clarinet and second bass, second drummer Frank Butler, and percussionist-vocalist Juno Lewis to the quartet and is a bit of an oddity. Lewis' chanting and colorful percussion make this a unique if not essential entry in Coltrane's discography.

This remastered release features both mono and stereo versions of each cut, and the differences are astounding. Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton was Eric Clapton's first fully realized album as a blues guitarist – more than that, it was a seminal blues album of the 1960s, perhaps the best British blues album ever cut, and the best LP ever recorded by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Standing midway between Clapton's stint with the Yardbirds and the formation of Cream, this album featured the new guitar hero on a series of stripped-down blues standards, Mayall pieces, and one Mayall/Clapton composition, all of which had him stretching out in the idiom for the first time in the studio. This album was the culmination of a very successful year of playing with John Mayall, a fully realized blues creation, featuring sounds very close to the group's stage performances, and with no compromises

"The Movie Song Album" is a 1966 studio album by Tony Bennett. The album consists of songs from films, opening with the theme from The Oscar, in which Bennett had recently appeared. With this project of such high quality of song material and collaborators, he was to describe the album in his autobiography as his "all time favorite record". Johnny Mandel was the musical director, and he and Neal Hefti and Quincy Jones arranged and conducted their own compositions on the album. Luiz Bonfá played the guitar on his two songs, "Samba de Orfeu" and "The Gentle Rain". The pianists Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Rowles and Lou Levy all collaborated, each on one song. Bennett's recording of "The Shadow of Your Smile" won Mandel and Paul Francis Webster the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1966, and Bennett performed the song at the 38th Academy Awards, where it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

This two-disc set from Collectables features a pair of out of print Esther Phillips LPs: The Country Side of Esther Phillips and Set Me Free, both originally issued on Atlantic Records. Highlights among the 36 tracks include "I Really Don't Want to Know," "Crazy Love," "Am I That Easy to Forget," and "Catch Me I'm Fallin'."