Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Rock’s most famous chameleon changed personas many times throughout his career. This 1976 recording, now reissued in deluxe edition formats with bonus material, reflects the iconic artist’s transition from Ziggy Stardust into the Thin White Duke. Always the actor, Bowie recorded the album, including his hit song “Golden Years,” after starring in the sci-fi film The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie fans will thrill to hear his synthesized disco-soul sound—plus a live concert from the period—in remastered, art-rock glory.

Liza Minnelli is a genuine showbiz icon, the daughter of legendary singer Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli and an award-winning singer and actress in her own right. One of the world’s most beloved performers, Minnelli belongs to an elite group of entertainers—including Barbra Streisand—who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Academy Award. Her most famous film role was as Sally Bowles in the 1972 musical Cabaret, for which she earned her Best Actress Oscar. Recordings by the singer, well known for her signature song “New York, New York,” have been all too infrequent. Her new Confessions album is her first non-cast studio recording in almost 15 years. “It just sort of happened,...

How big is Maroon 5? Big enough for the Grammy-winning band to be flown to Switzerland to work with Shania Twain’s ex-husband, legendary producer Robert “Mutt” Lange. It’s a marriage made in musical heaven. Lange gives the California pop rockers’ third disc his trademark polished-pop sheen, especially on tracks like the wildly catchy “Misery,” the melodically sweet “I Can’t Lie” and the unabashedly romantic “Just a Feeling.” There’s even a hint of Twain on the country-style ballad “Out of Goodbyes.”

A man and his guitar. Canada’s iconic rocker has been proving the power of that simple combination for half a century. Young’s latest is a testament to just how much feeling, meaning and, yes, noise he can draw from his instrument. Recorded without percussion, keyboards or strings (but with plenty of sonic effects from producer and fellow Canadian Daniel Lanois), the album’s standout tracks range from the raw “Walk with Me” and the ornery “Angry World” to the gorgeous, Spanish-tinged confessional “Love and War.”

She’s still most famous as the star of 1978 cult musical movie Grease and the singer of “Physical,” her ubiquitous hit from the 1980s. But Olivia Newton-John may one day also be remembered as a passionate health advocate. Ever since she survived breast cancer in 1992, the singer-actress has been on a mission to promote cancer awareness. Two years ago, she raised money to build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne and led a 228 km walk along the Great Wall of China, joined by various celebrities and cancer survivors throughout the trek. Musically, the British-born, Australian-raised star chronicled her ordeal on 1994’s Gaia: One Woman’s Journey and then in 2006 relea...

The cover depicts Collins as a teenage drummer when he came of age to the sound of American soul music. Inside, the singer goes back to those roots, covering 18 classics of the Motown era. There’s an exuberance to Collins' versions of Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” and Martha & the Vandellas’ “Jimmy Mack,” while the darker “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” can be read as a heartwrenching confession to his older children—musician Simon and actresses Joely and Lily—about his absence as their father.

Seal first teamed up with producer David Foster for 2008’s Soul. Here, the pair partner up for a series of songs which delve into the emotions surrounding love, family and commitment. Married to supermodel Heidi Klum, with whom he has four children, the soul singer expresses his devotion on “Best of Me,” “If I’m Any Closer” and the moving, string-laden ballad “Secret.” Marriage and fatherhood obviously suits him: the husky throated baritone hasn't sounded this sweet—or confident—in years.

The Dixie Chicks are pop’s ultimate crossover queens. The Texan group began in the 1990s as a bluegrass and country music outfit. But after singer Natalie Maines joined everything changed. Out went the cowgirl dresses and in came a more contemporary look and sound. By 2002, the Chicks, including sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison, were sharing the stage with pop stars like Celine Dion, Cher, Shakira and Mary J. Blige in the VH1 Divas Show in Las Vegas. The crossover began with 1998’s Wide Open Spaces, which entered the pop and country charts in the top five and went diamond with sales of 10 million. The followup, Fly, repeated that achievement, making the Chicks the only female group t...

Throughout his career, Adamshas proven himself to be one of pop’s best switch hitters, capable of topping the charts with both soft and hard rock songs. This 12-track compilation neatly balances the two, focusing on his arena-rock hits of the 1980s (mainly nuggets like “Heaven” and “Summer of 69” from 1984’s international breakthrough Reckless) to his popular power ballads of the ’90s like “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman” and the record-breaking “Everything I Do (I Do It For You).” Classic Adams.

It’s no wonder the Supremes inspired Dreamgirls. Theirs is a classic rags-to-riches story: rising from the poverty of Detroit housing projects to become the top female group of the 1960s—even rivaling even the Beatles in popularity. Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard (later replaced by Cindy Birdsong) scored a remarkable 12 number one hits and every single one of them is included here, from “Baby Love” and “Stop! In the Name of Love” to “You Can’t Hurry Love” and the socially conscious “Love Child.”