Replacing the band's volume in A&M's Classics series, Greatest Hits collects all Styx's major chart and radio hits, from "Lady" to "Show Me the Way." Although they were a definitive album-oriented rock band, creating records that were meant to be listened to as a whole, their finest moments were always their singles, making Greatest Hits the only Styx disc many fans will need to own.

Leonard Chess dispatched Etta James to Muscle Shoals in 1967, and the move paid off with one of her best and most soul-searing Cadet albums. Produced by Rick Hall, the resultant album boasted a relentlessly driving title cut, the moving soul ballad "I'd Rather Go Blind," and sizzling covers of Otis Redding's "Security" and Jimmy Hughes' "Don't Lose Your Good Thing," and a pair of fine Don Covay copyrights. The skin-tight session aces at Fame Studios really did themselves proud behind Miss Peaches.

German-born baritone Benjamin Appl studied with the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whose voice his own resembles on the surface. But then he moved to England and has stayed on there. Heimat (Homeland) is not just an exploration of that German concept, but a personal statement and even a bit of an autobiography, with notes from the artist himself (find these if you listen via download or stream) explaining the resonances of each individual song. This kind of personal connection is what classical music in general needs right now, and all the more so in the rather closed tradition of the German Lied.

Wenzel Ludwig Edler von Radolt’s collection of lute music entitled ”To my most true and confiding friend”, inclined both to the merry and to the sad humours, herewith in the company of other faithful vassals of our innermost sensibility’ was printed in 1701 in Vienna by J(oh)ann Michael Nestler and bears a dedication to the then‚ Roman King’ Josef I.
Radolt was of Austro-Italian aristocratic descent. He was born and died in Vienna. According to his own account, he spent his life ”so allured by the beguiling countenance of most pleasurable music, as to dedicate the course of my life to her“. The ‘Most true and confiding friend’ is the only work of Radolt that survives today.

After a self-titled release that flirted with pop crossover, violinist David Garrett dives deep into that world with his 2010 effort, an album that rocks like its 1766. Most arrangements are simple as Garrett takes the melodies from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” and plays them furiously in front of an equally aggressive orchestra that’s augmented by electric guitars and a standard rock kit drummer. No great revelations to be had, but the tracks work well enough, recasting some of rock’s classics as Romantic-era works that are prime for television commercials designed to sell diamonds or wine to the post-Woodstock set.

Roland Romanelli is a French synthesist and composer, mainly known as arranger. During his career, he worked with Barbara, Rusty Egan, and other notable figures in popular music. He was an early adopter of the Fairlight system. Romanelli moved to Paris in 1966. He was a session player on accordion and keyboards for Barbara Brodi. He soon worked for other musicians including Charles Aznavour. In the late 1970s, he worked in the French space disco scene, and was a founding member of the popular band Space. He took up synthesizers, which helped his career grow in the 1980s. His 1982 album Connecting Flight was also released in the US on PolyGram Records.

Nazareth are a Scottish hard rock band formed in Dunfermline in 1968 that had several hits in the United Kingdom, as well as in several other Western European countries in the early 1970s. The band featured vocalist Dan McCafferty, guitarist Manny Charlton, bassist Pete Agnew, and drummer Darrell Sweet. The band had relocated to London by 1970, and they released their self-titled debut album in 1971. They established an international audience with their 1975 album Hair of the Dog, which featured their hits "Hair of the Dog" and a cover of the ballad "Love Hurts". The band continues to record and tour.

It’s back. The debut album that blew up the ’90s blues scene. The songs that announced the touchdown of a major new talent. In modern times, as an established solo star and former member of the globally acclaimed Royal Southern Brotherhood, Mike Zito’s reputation precedes him. But turn back the clocks. Rewind the film reels. Slip through the wormhole to 1998, when a 27-year-old punk kid took his first shot in the studio. “Blue Room,” he reflects, “is the beginning of me becoming an artist.”