Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Adele swept on to these shores with the wave of young pop divas like Duffy that flooded out of England in the wake of Amy Winehouse’s success. Some critics even called her the new Amy Winehouse. But Adele wasn’t messed up like Amy, or pin-up pretty like Duffy. By her own admission, she was different. “I think Amy is hardcore and Duffy is really soft, a proper lady,” she said. “I’m really contemporary—and just really mouthy.” A graduate of London’s famed BRIT School, where she was classmates with Leona Lewis, Adele made her mark with her 2008 debut album, 19, a soulful collection of songs like “Chasing Pavements” that won her two Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist. What set Adele apart ...

Created as TV’s answer to the Beatles, the Monkees were once dismissed as the “prefab Fab Four.” But history has been kinder to the group, as new generations discover their pop charms. The Monkees were blessed with humor, good looks and classic songs by top songwriters like Neil Diamond, whose “I’m a Believer” the band covered here (the band’s first four albums are being reissued). Other nuggets include “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” and “Mary Mary,” by the group’s own, wooly-hatted Michael Nesmith.

In his lifetime the Man in Black was prolific, releasing nearly 100 albums and over 150 singles. Since his 2003 death, the recordings have kept-a-comin’, as more musical treasures are discovered in the House of Cash. The first disc in this collection features such 1950s gems as early demos of classics like “Big River” and “I Walk the Line,” while the second covers Cash’s work in the ’60s, including his “Girl from Saskatoon” and a rare spoken-sung collaboration with Canada’s Lorne Greene, from TV’s Bonanza.

Whitney Houston created the blueprint for the modern-day pop diva. With her poise, elegance and soaring, multi-octave voice, Houston ruled the airwaves in the 1980s and ’90s and inspired female singers from Mariah Carey and Céline Dion to Beyoncé and Rihanna. When she was at her best, few vocalists could match the power and clarity of her mezzo-soprano. “Over the last 30 years, there’s Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and Whitney,” says executive producer Clive Davis, who discovered her. “She ranks right up there with those all-time greats.” The daughter of gospel vocalist Cissy Houston, the cousin of singer Dionne Warwick and the god-daughter of soul great Aretha Franklin, Whitney burst on...

Aretha is getting the major retrospective treatment with an 11-CD/DVD box set, covering her groundbreaking work from 1960-65. The 18 tracks here focus on songs by stellar composers like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Cole Porter—all of which showcase the Queen of Soul’s deeply emotive sound. But the real proof of her interpretive powers lies in how Franklin, the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, makes signature songs by legends like Billie Holiday and Otis Redding entirely her own.

The story of America’s Kings of Leon is as good as the band’s sound. Three brothers—Nathan, Caleb and Jared Followill—name their group after their preacher father, Leon, and, together with their cousin, Matthew Followill, cross Lynyrd Skynyrd-style Southern boogie with Strokes-like garage sounds to create a thrilling new rock hybrid. For newcomers, this CD set, compiling KOL’s first three formidable albums, is the perfect primer. For followers of the Followills, Boxed is rock-and-roll heaven in one nifty box.

Mariah Carey’s voice is a wonder to behold. Capable of soaring heavenward through five octaves, it dazzled the world when she first burst on to the scene with her 1990 self-titled debut album. What stood out was the sincerity with which she sang and the impossibly high notes she could hit, seemingly with ease. Her voice has influenced a generation of younger divas, including Beyoncé and Christina Aguilera, and is often cited as one of greatest instruments in popular music. The Essential Mariah Carey is the best way to appreciate the legendary artist’s vocal talent. The two-CD set is a chronological review of her career in the ’90s, beginning with “Vision of Love,” a gospel-style number from ...

Call him the Happy Hawaiian. The Honolulu-born pop phenomenon has good reason to be cheerful. His best-selling debut album has earned the 25-year-old seven Grammy nominations as singer, songwriter and producer. The album, a feel-good mix of reggae, rock, soul and hip-hop, is now available with additional material. Along with the hits “Grenade” and “Just the Way You Are,” the box set includes live and remixed versions of his songs, three videos and an assortment of collectible items for fans. Bonus Bruno.

She was the first woman inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But Cline, who died at 30 in a plane crash, was as much a revered pop star and huge influence on singers like Linda Ronstadt. She was also later the subject of a major Hollywood movie, 1985’s Sweet Dreams, starring Jessica Lange. This CD captures Cline’s honeyed soprano on hits like “I Fall to Pieces,” “Walkin’ After Midnight” and “She’s Got You.” Also included is her signature song, “Crazy,” written by a then little-known writer named Willie Nelson.

He’s known as Rod the Mod. But lately, Rod Stewart has been acting more like Brad the Trad. Since 2002, the singer’s repertoire has been drawn almost exclusively from the Great American Songbook tradition—tunes from Broadway theatre and Hollywood movies of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. Stewart isn’t the first pop or rock singer to do this: Linda Ronstadt, Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Bublé all followed in the footsteps of Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra and sang the works of Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. But Stewart has been the most successful at it. His five Great American Songbook albums have sold 18 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling seri...