A wonderful batch of Darlene Love recordings for Phil Spector – excellent solo numbers plus gems with The Blossoms, The Crystals and Bob B Soxx And The Blue Jeans! By nature of her career, Darlene worked in a number of different styles over the years– from R&B orchestra, to sweetly laidback soul, to boisterous girl group and back again. Sounds Of Love focuses on the big early-to-mid 60s years with Spector at the helm, but opens and closes with earlier and later gems, and it's terrific stuff all the way! Titles include "No Other Love", That's When The Tears Start" and "Good Good Lovin'" with The Blossoms, "He's A Rebel" with The Crystals, "Why Do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts?" with Bob B Soxx And The Blue Jeans, "Run Run Runaway", "A Fine, Fine Boy", "Stumble And Fall", "A Long Way To Be Happy", "Lord, If You're A Woman" and more. CD

Rare work from the early years of soul music – and a special set that focuses on sounds created in and around Los Angeles – a city that's not nearly as well known for 60s soul as Chicago, Detroit, or New Orleans! Yet during the postwar years, LA had just as much going on as those eastern cities – a huge new population influx, who'd move over from the south during the wartime years – and new labels that had cropped up to capture their sounds and serve their audience! 50s LA was already humming with R&B material, which gave the rising styles of soul plenty of places to get recorded – so much so, that there's even some work on this set that was never issued at the time! The vibe is great – similar to other Birth Of Soul sets from Ace/Kent – in that the music carries a bit of R&B and blues bite from earlier years, mixed with more romping and tighter soul styles – in a smoking set list of 24 tracks that include "But What About My Broken Heart" by Don Wyatt, "Everybody's Got A Lover But Me" by Richard Berry, "Have You Heard" by The Vows, "With These Hands" by The Wonders, "You Better Watch Out Girl" by The Imperialites, "Lose My Cool" by Ike & Tina Turner, "Let Him Walk Away" by Darlene Love, "My Pillow" by The Numbers, "Help Me With My Broken Heart" by Sylvester Stewart, "That Other Guy" by The Mandarins, "Don't Drop It" by The Question Marks, and "Young Lover" by Wilks & Wilkerson. CD

The classic box set featuring so many of the biggest, best, and brightest pop, rock & soul singles of the late 50s and on through the 60s – those ubiquitous, but no less incredible productions from that crazy genius Phil Spector! Back To Mono features many of the best known numbers by the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, Darlene Love, the Checkmates, the Crystals and many more – all of it with the appropriately dubbed Wall Of Sound that made Phil Spector the most famous producer of all time! We'd love to see an addendum someday featuring a set of Spector's productions for those idiosyncratic superstars of the 70s (the Ramones, Leonard Cohen, the post-Beatles) – but as a snapshot of an era, this box can hardly be beaten! 60 tracks on the the main 3CDs in the set – plus a 4th CD featuring the classic Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector album from 1963! Titles include "To Know Him Is To Love Him" by the Teddy Bears, "Spanish Harlem" by Ben E King, "I Love How You Love Me" by Paris Sisters, "He's A Rebel" by the Crystals, "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Going To Marry" by Darlene Love, "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, "Hold Me Tight" by the Treasures, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by the Righteous Brothers, "River Deep Mountain High" by Ike & Tina, "Love Is All I Have To Give" by Checkmates and tons more – plus the immortal holiday disc featuring the Ronettes, Bob B Soxx & The Blue Jeans, Crystals, Darlene Love and more! All that, and a thick, nearly 100 page booklet! CD

Santa Claus gets plenty of lovin here – in a sweet set of tracks that spans the worlds of soul, gospel, and blues – bringing together some key classics from the season, plus some more unusual material too! There's a total of 26 tracks on the set – and titles include "The Sound Of Christmas" by The Violinaires, "Christmas In Viet Nam" by Johnny & Jon, "Santa's On His Way" by Ad Libs, "It's That Time Of Year" by The Manhattans, "Doing The Santa Claus" by Huey Smith & The Clowns, "You Better Be Good World" by Shirley Ellis, "White Xmas" by Los Angeles Angels, "Merry Christmas Baby" by Vernon Garrett, "Silent Night" by Liz Lands, "Marshmallow World" by Darlene Love, "I'll Stay Home" by The Creators, "White Christmas" by Rance Allen, "Everyday Will Be Like A Holiday" by Leon Haywood, "Merry Christmas Baby" by Ike & Tina Turner, and "It's Been A Long Bad Year" by Lonnie Hewitt. CD

A wonderful compilation of Lee Hazlewood songs performed by others in the 60s – magnificent pulp pop, girl groups, starlets, rockers and more covering prime era Lee tunes – songs about lovers, fools, rebels and heartbroken examples of all of the above! There's little we can add to the lore of Lee – but these songs are atypically diverse and the set as a hole does a terrific job of showing just have far the Hazlewood touch could reach! Features Lee duets with Nancy Sinatra & Suzi Jane Hokum, and covers by Duane Eddy, The Hondas, The Darlenes, Al Casey, Sanford Clark, Ann Margaret, The Wildcats, Dino, Desi & Billy, The Sharps, Peggy March and many more1 25 tracks in all: "Lady Bird' by Nancy & Lee, "Sweet Ride" by Dusty Springfield, "You Turned My Head" by Ann Margaret, "Don't Look Now, But I've Got The Blues" by BB King, "(I'm Afraid) You'll Hurt Me" by The Darlenes, "The City Never Sleeps At Night" by The Shacklefords, "Guitar On My Mind" by Duane & Miriam Eddy, "Das Ist Zauberei (And I Loved You Then)" by Peggy March, "Twelve Feet High" by The Hondas and many more. CD

Glorious girl group pop, solo and group soul singles from the heart of the 60s – beautiful stuff that might have made a splash in their time, but didn't enter the eternal pop culture canon like some of the bigger hits of the day – and we couldn't be happier to have them in our lives all these years later! Where The Girls Are 8 features tunes by The Blossoms, The Orlons, The Sherrys, Dee Dee Sharp, The Four Havens, The Del-Phis, The Bonnetts, The Darlenes, The Pussycats and more – with absolute top shelf craft behind them – but as grand as the productions are and as legendary as the songwriters are – and we're talking about Lou Alder, Ashford & Simpson, Lee Hazlewood, Gamble & Huff and others behind the scenes – nothing outshines the lovely ladies' voices! Includes "Cry Like A Baby" by The Blossoms, "Comin' Home Baby" by Dee Dee Sharp, "Baby It Hurts" by Kelly Garrett, "Stand By Me" by Little Eva, "My Little Baby" by The Witches, "You Don't Have A Heart" by The Bunnies, "I Ain't Comin' Back" by The Orlons, "Come On And Ska" by The Pussycats, "Let's Be Sweethearts" by The Cinnamon Angels and more. 25 tracks in all. CD

Not Kurt Cobain's Nirvana, but a totally great effort from the late 60s Brit group of the same name – true pop psych geniuses, and able to work here with a sound that's nice and trippy, but never self-indulgent! These guys manage to get nice and spacey with some of the arrangements and production, yet still deliver one hell of a tune – really catchy tracks that make each new number on the album a 60s pop delight, but work that also has the richer depth of some of the more heady material of the time! The balance here is wonderful – at a level that few other groups might match – with echoes of some of our favorite other late 60s moments – like the Left Banke, or Chad & Jeremy's Cabbages & Kings, with great use of strings – but still very much Nirvana's own sound too. Titles include "Rainbow Chaser", "Tiny Goddess", "You Can Try It", "St John's Wood Affair", "Everybody Loves The Clown", "The Touchables", and "Trapeze". CD features bonus tracks "Oh What A Performance", "Flashbulb", "Darling Darlene", and "C Side Of Ocho Rios". CD