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Country hitmaker John Michael Montgomery kicked his career up a notch with his second album, KICKIN' IT UP; the 1994 collection went quadruple-platinum, besting its predecessor by a million sales or so. Its ten tracks include four Country Top 10s: “Be My Baby Tonight,” “Rope the Moon,” “If You've Got Love” and “I Swear,” which became a pop chart-topper by vocal group All-4-One a year later. Balancing heartfelt ballads with more energetic country-rock, the album has something for everyone, and quickly shot to the top of the Billboard 200. While John Michael Montgomery's domination of the charts wouldn't end with KICKIN' IT UP, the set remains among the Kentucky native's very best.

Deep Purple's Ian Gillan once noted of FIREBALL that "... I thought, from a writing point of view, it was really the beginning of tremendous possibilities of expression. And some of the tracks on that album are really, really inventive.” We're hard-pressed to argue with the singer; the second studio album by the British band's classic “Mark II” lineup of Gillan, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, keyboardist Jon Lord, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice was an outstanding hard rocker like its predecessor, IN ROCK. Along with the title track, the set includes the single “Strange Kind Of Woman” and the storming instrumental “The Mule.” The self-produced collection topped the U.K. album chart on this day in 1971 – it was the first of three consecutive No.1s for the quintet. Strutting their stuff and stretching their sound on seven blazing originals, FIREBALL shows Deep Purple at its very best. 

Managed by Brian Epstein and produced by George Martin, Liverpool band Gerry & the Pacemakers shared a lot with The Beatles in the early 1960s, with chart success rivaling that of the Fabs; the first three Pacemaker singles (“How Do You Do It?,” “I Like It” and “You'll Never Walk Alone”) each went to No.1 in the U.K. Though the band's glory days were brief – they broke up in 1966 – Gerry & the Pacemakers were among the most upbeat and appealing of the British Invasion, as THE EMI YEARS – THE BEST OF makes abundantly clear. Along with the aforementioned hits, the 31 tracks include U.S. Top 10s “Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying” and “Ferry 'Cross The Mersey” along with plenty of buoyant pop and punchy rockers. Pacemakers leader Gerry Marsden was born on this day in 1942, and we'll wish him a happy birthday with the outstanding THE EMI YEARS – THE BEST OF collection.

Is Kylie Minogue Australia's answer to Madonna?  Kylie's knack for self-reinvention and ability to anticipate the pop zeitgeist is surely on a par with that of the Material Girl. More than a decade after she first reached the Top 10 (with a cover of “The Loco-Motion”), Minogue returned to U.S. record stores with FEVER. Clearly the performer spent her time away polishing her craft - with a small army of top producers at work, the collection boasts a gleaming studio sheen and 14 energetic dance-pop tracks. Among the irresistible singles are "In Your Eyes," "Love at First Sight," the Grammy-winning "Come into My World" and signature song "Can't Get You Out of My Head," which started a five-week run at No.1 on the U.K. chart on this day in 2001. The Deluxe Edition of FEVER includes propulsive remixes of all those singles along with “Whenever You Feel Like It.” It's the version to get of Kylie Minogue's most successful album to date.

The Small Faces had been heroes of the U.K. mod and psych scenes before lead singer Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie; Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones recruited two new members to soldier on as Faces. They picked a couple of winners – Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood – and the four Faces studio albums are among the most intoxicating and exuberant of the early 1970s. The new boxed set YOU CAN MAKE ME SING, DANCE OR ANYTHING includes remastered and expanded versions of FIRST STEP, LONG PLAYER, A NOD IS AS GOOD AS A WINK...TO A BLIND HORSE and OOH LA LA plus a disc of stray non-LP sides. There's some overlap with the Faces rarities box of a few years back, but the new collection has unearthed some 15 previously unreleased cuts including outtakes, live, rehearsal and BBC recordings. It's a stirring body of work sure to make you SING, DANCE OR ANYTHING.

If Oxford quintet Radiohead would soon scale greater artistic heights, there's no denying the strength of their inaugural album, PABLO HONEY, cited as one of the 100 greatest debuts of all time by Amazon's editorial staff. Named after a Jerky Boys skit (a snippet of which can be heard on the album's “How Do You?”), the collection wears influences like U2 and Nirvana on its sleeve, yet there are several striking songs that suggest a distinctive, original vision - among them “Anyone Can Play Guitar,” “Thinking About You” and “Creep,” the group's first single, released on this day in 1992. Frontman Thom Yorke had written that anthem of self-loathing years before, and the Collector's Edition of PABLO HONEY includes acoustic and BBC versions of the song plus 20 additional bonus tracks to paint a fascinating portrait of the embryonic band.

As MC5 frontman Rob Tyner recalled in the liner notes to KICK OUT THE JAMS, “We were considered killer, righteous, high energy dudes who could pitch a whang dang doodle all night long.” Indeed, the Motor City quintet's debut album, cut live in 1968 in Detroit's Grande Ballroom (the band's hometown stronghold), is a no-holds-barred call to revolution that rocks from its notoriously expletive-laden start to finish. The dual guitar firepower of Wayne Kramer and Fred “Sonic” Smith, and the thundering rhythm section of bassist Michael Davis and drummer Dennis Thompson help make this one of the loudest, most intense live albums ever recorded – when Tyner sings “Motor City Is Burning,” these are the guys pouring gasoline on the fire. We'll KICK OUT THE JAMS in memory of the lead vocalist, who died on this day in 1991.

On this day in 1979, The Sugarhill Gang released “Rapper's Delight”; if not the first record to feature rapping, it was the single that brought hip-hop to the world beyond New York. It's the closing track on the trio's 1980 self-titled debut album for Sugarhill Records, which in addition to rap (“Rapper's Reprise (Jam, Jam),” with guest vocals from female hip-hoppers The Sequence) features slow jams (“Here I Am”) and disco-funk (“Sugarhill Groove”) to offer a comprehensive look at the dawning of a new musical age. Wonder Mike, Master Gee and Big Bank Hank are in fine form throughout SUGARHILL GANG, a Top 40 R&B album that remains a treat for old school fans.

On this day in 1952, Ray Charles entered the Atlantic Records studio in New York to make his first recordings for the label. Not yet “Brother Ray” (he was 21 at the time), Charles' work would be doled out on singles; Atlantic didn't get into the LP business until five years later. Which means that Ray Charles' self-titled 1957 debut album (later rereleased as HALLELUJAH I LOVE HER SO) was culled from years of hits - among them R&B Top Tens “Mess Around,” “Drown In My Own Tears” and the iconic “I Got A Woman.” With ace Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler at the helm for these sessions, quality control was pretty high, and the instrumental arrangements match the brilliance of the singing. The protean performer still had nearly fifty years ahead of him, but the volcanic RAY CHARLES proves his genius was there from the start.