Few stars of the '60s reinvented themselves as successfully as Marianne Faithfull. Coaxed into a singing career by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham in 1964, she had a big hit in both Britain and the U.S. with her debut single, the Jagger/Richards composition "As Tears Go By" (which prefaced the Stones' own version by a full year)…

Duchess of Coolsville is Rhino's three-CD career retrospective of the work of singer and songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, an artist who changed the face of pop in the 1970s in her own way beginning with her surprise hit "Chuck E's in Love." Since that time she has continued on a highly personal, often idiosyncratic path; one that does not always give the marketplace its due…

Equal parts blue-eyed soul shouter and wild-eyed poet-sorcerer, Van Morrison is among popular music's true innovators, a restless seeker whose incantatory vocals and alchemical fusion of R&B, jazz, blues, and Celtic folk produced perhaps the most spiritually transcendent body of work in the rock & roll canon…

Besides hardcore Led Zeppelin fans, it's a little known fact that Jimmy Page produced and played on a 1970 album by theatrical rocker Screaming Lord Sutch, Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends. In addition to Page's appearance (he also co-penned a few tracks), the other 'friends' included John Bonham, Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins, and Noel Redding. Since the album is quite difficult to find nowadays, select tracks have popped up over the years on compilations, such as the 2000 set Rock and Roll Highway. While Sutch's vocals can be quite grating at times, it's interesting to hear songs that come close to approximating the Led Zeppelin sound at the time (namely Led Zeppelin II – "Wailing Sounds," "Union Jack Car," "Flashing Lights," etc).

The band is billed here as "the Lovin' Spoonful Featuring Joe Butler." Just when everybody had written them off after Sebastian's departure, this flawed gem came out of left field. Butler's smooth voice had graced a few tracks on all of the past LPs, in addition to having a few of his own tunes included. He comes into his own here, but unfortunately, his three originals are the weakest songs on the LP, especially the ultra-hip sound collage "War Games." However, the great pop team of Bonner and Gordon came up with three strong tunes, including the hit "Me About You" (previously done by The Turtles) and the fine "(Till I) Run with You" (the title of the LP as written on the label), with John Stewart supplying the best track, the gorgeous "Never Going Back."

It took a few years for the members of Collage, Poland's neo-progressive rock bandwagon, to pick themselves up after the group's breakup in the mid-'90s. A Street Between Sunrise and Sunset can be considered as the group's rightful heir. Written almost completely by drummer Wojtek Szadkowski (who used to be Collage's main songwriter), the album is performed by a cast of ex-Collage musicians (some of them appearing as guests). Lead singer Robert Amirian plays the soft card, aiming for the dreamy seduction of Pendragon instead of the lung-heavy theatrics of Fish. It serves the songs right, as they tend to be on the unassertive side of things.

Two of the most masterful crafters of sophisticated art rock united on stage for a series of special live engagements in 2005, Joe Jackson and Todd Rundgren.

The Smithereens already have a single-disc compilation, 1995's excellent Blown to Smithereens: The Best of the Smithereens. Released in 2004, From Jersey It Came! The Smithereens Anthology expands on that collection, taking 15 of its 16 songs (a cover of the Outsiders' "Time Won't Let Me" is left behind) and adding 24 other tunes, including their version of "Downbound Train" from a Bruce Springsteen tribute and a selection from 1999's God Save the Smithereens, for a grand total of 39 tracks over two discs…