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Freddie King, beloved by blues aficionados as “The Texas Cannonball, was born on this day in 1934. While the performer had his biggest hits on the fabled King Records label during the 1960s, fans are quick to point out that King's end-of-the-decade stint on Atlantic produced work that was just as memorable. Case in point:  MY FEELING FOR THE BLUES. The 1970 set, helmed by sax great King Curtis and featuring horn arrangements by Donny Hathaway, frames King's amazing axework perfectly, but the real revelation on these 11 tracks is how soulful Freddie was as a singer. From the opening “Yonder Wall” to the closing title track, the underrated MY FEELING FOR THE BLUES will have you feeling them, too.

From the moment Linda Ronstadt arrived on the Los Angeles folk-rock scene in 1964, her talent was obvious. This woman could sing the phone book and make it sound like poetry; fortunately she had better source material (Warren Zevon and Eagles were among the up-and-coming acts who supplied her with hits, and Ronstadt's ear for oldies ready to be rediscovered was second to none). The new JUST ONE LOOK: CLASSIC LINDA RONSTADT spotlights the singer's peerless interpretive skills and versatility on 30 newly remastered tracks. The two-disc set spans a quarter-century of music from her 1967 commercial breakthrough (“Different Drum”) to the title track of her 1993 album WINTER LIGHT. Among the Top 10 hits in-between are “You're No Good,” “Blue Bayou,” “How Do I Make You” and her duet with Aaron Neville, “Don't Know Much.” An ideal overview of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's glory days, JUST ONE LOOK merits many listens.

Their successful debut had marked British quartet Coldplay as a band to watch, a fact not lost upon them when they entered a London studio with producer Ken Nelson to make their second album. Those sessions struck the group as too similar to PARACHUTES, so they headed to Liverpool and worked up an album that sounded a bit more urgent – and turned out to be even more successful than its predecessor. A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD rushed to the No.1 slot on the U.K. chart on this day in 2002, and went on to earn more than 15 million in worldwide sales along with a pair of Grammy Awards. “In My Place,” “The Scientist,” “Clocks” and “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face” are among the tracks that took off as singles, helping earn this outstanding collection a spot on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of “The Definitive 200 Albums of All Time.”

From his earliest recordings with Them, it was clear that Van Morrison was one of rock's greatest vocalists, and ASTRAL WEEKS confirmed that he was an equally brilliant writer. But that beautiful song cycle wasn't a hit; it was the follow-up, 1970's MOONDANCE, that put Morrison into the Top 40, selling steadily over the years to go triple platinum. An accessible fusion of blue-eyed soul, jazz and the music of Morrison's native Ireland, the collection has been hailed by the likes of Time and Rolling Stone as one of the greatest ever made. The Deluxe Edition of MOONDANCE offers a rare look at Morrison's creative process; along with a meticulously remastered version of the original album, the set includes some 50 previously unreleased recordings from the sessions, including multiple takes of such favorites as “Caravan,” “Into The Mystic” and the title track, as well as “I Shall Sing,” a song which didn't make the album but later became a hit for Art Garfunkel. Van the Man turns 70 today; we'll wish him a happy birthday with this definitive look at one of his summit achievements.

We all know the feeling from grade school as the clock ticks off the last few minutes of the last day of the school year. Alice Cooper set out to capture the gleeful abandon of kids pouring out of classrooms to enjoy their summer, and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams with “School's Out,” which topped the U.K. chart on this day in 1972, and hit #7 in America to become the rocker's top-selling single. The Warner Bros. album of the same name features eight additional tracks offering musical lessons in hard rock, prog and even Broadway (“Gutter Cat Vs. The Jets”) - though the lyrics are often better suited for detention hall. With producer Bob Ezrin behind the boards and ace axemen Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce firing away, the platinum-selling SCHOOL'S OUT remains among Alice Cooper's best albums.

Peter Tosh was one of reggae's most charismatic performers, recording seminal sides with The Wailers before cutting a series of blazing solo albums for the Rolling Stones' label. The 1983 MAMA AFRICA pairs the politically and socially conscious messages for which the Rastafarian performer was famous with some of the best instrumental backing he ever had. These nine tracks include guest turns from the great Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare as well as singing group The Tamlins, and from the horn and African drum players to Tosh on clavinet, there's great musical chemistry throughout. Tosh brings new life to old favorites like The Wailers' “Stop That Train,” “Maga Dog” and the rock 'n' roll classic “Johnny B. Goode,” and hits hard with new songs like “Peace Treaty” and “Glass House.” Peter Tosh's best seller outside of Jamaica and perhaps his most accessible release, MAMA AFRICA is the ideal introduction to a true reggae legend.

In 1977, a Belfast, North Ireland cover band named after Deep Purple's "Highway Star" caught the punk bug and adopted the name of a Vibrators song: Stiff Little Fingers. With the sectarian Troubles raging around them, frontman/songwriter Jake Burns had plenty of material to draw from, and such incendiary, politically informed tracks as "Suspect Device," "Alternative Ulster" and "Wasted Life" have lost none of their power. The three-volume ANTHOLOGY gathers all the single A- and B-sides from Stiff Little Fingers' original incarnation, a tasty sampling of the group's 1990s reunion albums and a live set recorded at London's Brixton Academy in 1989. This consistently exciting collection is worthy of Ireland's answer to The Clash.

The Doobie Brothers got their start playing in Northern California biker bars; if that origin did little to endear the band to critics, it likely helped teach the discipline and focus on accessible songs that enabled the Doobies to crank out 10 strong albums in little more than a decade. What's most impressive about THE WARNER BROS. YEARS 1971-1983 is how quickly the band grew from its humble beginnings, incorporating country, folk and blue-eyed soul to produce a string of hits, first with frontman Tom Johnston ("Rockin' Down the Highway," "China Grove") and later Michael McDonald ("Takin' It To The Streets," "What A Fool Believes"). From their eponymous debut to their live farewell tour set, this affordable 10-disc set of the Doobies' WARNER BROS. YEARS is the ideal way to "Listen To The Music."

British singer Billy J. Kramer had been toiling for British Railways and playing music in his spare time when he caught the eye of manager Brian Epstein and his future was set. Kramer was paired with a solid instrumental group, The Dakotas, and supplied with some songs penned by one of Epstein's other acts – The Beatles. With producer George Martin at the controls, Kramer turned Lennon-McCartney's "Do You Want To Know A Secret?," "Bad To Me" and "I'll Keep You Satisfied" into Top 10 U.K. hits in 1963, and in the next two years had similar success with "Little Children" and "Trains And Boats And Planes." These and two dozen more from Billy and The Dakotas can be heard on the 2005 Parlophone collection THE VERY BEST OF. Featuring all of his British Invasion hits (and a few surprisingly tough sides for a singer better known for ballads), the collection paints a vivid portrait of Billy J Kramer, who was born in this day in 1943.

With three Americans and three Englishmen in their line-up, Foreigner's name was appropriate everywhere on the globe, and the band's irresistible arena rock brought it immediate success around the world. The sextet's self-titled 1977 debut was a smash thanks to such tracks as "Headknocker," "Long, Long Way From Home," "Feels Like The First Time" and "Cold As Ice" - the latter two Top 10 U.S. singles – and the album quickly went multi-platinum. There's no denying the craftsmanship of these songs or the one-two punch of vocalist Lou Gramm and guitarist Mick Jones; the four bonus demos on the Expanded Edition of FOREIGNER make that chemistry even clearer. The band's original drummer, Dennis Elliott, turns 65 today, and we'll celebrate the birthday with another spin of this AOR classic.