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What's the most successful American rock group after The Beach Boys? Chicago. The horn rock hitmakers have charted in every decade since their late-'60s inception, and the latter portion of their still-ongoing career is the focus of THE STUDIO ALBUMS 1979-2008. The 10-disc collection of the most recently remastered, bonus track-laden versions of the band's 13, XIV, 16, 17 (the best-selling album of the band's career at 6x platinum), 18, 19, TWENTY 1, NIGHT & DAY, XXX and STONE OF SISYPHUS shows Chicago's instrumental and songwriting chops to be second to none. The group's emergence as first-class romantic balladeers and the post-Peter Cetera evolution heard on the new THE STUDIO ALBUMS set mark Chicago as one of the most consistently appealing performers of the last 30 years.

King and queen of the Sunset Strip in the mid-1960s, Salvatore “Sonny” Bono and Cherilyn “Cher” Sarkisian had apprenticed with producer Phil Spector and constructed their own wall of sound on hits beginning with “I Got You Babe,” which reached No.1 on the U.S. singles chart on this day in 1965. The double-album SONNY & CHER'S GREATEST HITS includes that classic love ballad along with the cream of their output for Atco – more than half of the 20 tracks were charting singles, including Top 10 hits “Laugh At Me” and “The Beat Goes On.” While hitting the highlights, the collection digs a little deeper into the duo's work, with cuts from their three albums (and movie soundtrack GOOD TIMES) revealing Sonny to be a first class pop songwriter.  SONNY & CHER'S GREATEST HITS brims with folk-rock magic.

Yes' eighth studio longplayer was cut after a three-year break to give its members the chance to do solo albums; to judge from GOING FOR THE ONE, the time apart did them good. The album marked the return to the fold of keyboardist Rick Wakeman, whose work on Moog synthesizers,  Mellotron and a church pipe organ is inspired throughout. Except for the closing epic “Awaken,” the songs are punchier and stand easily on their own; singles “Wonderous Stories” and the title track were very radio-friendly, helping to push the album to the top of the U.K. chart on this day in 1977. Rhino's Deluxe Edition of GOING FOR THE ONE makes this underrated prog rock gem even better with the addition of seven previously unreleased tracks from the album sessions.

For those who only know Dire Straits from swinging sultans or computer-animated workers on MTV, the British quintet's fourth album should be mandatory listening. LOVE OVER GOLD displays all the musical ambition and instrumental proficiency that enamored the band to both critics and fans on both sides of the Atlantic. From the 14-minute epic, “Telegraph Road,” that opens the set, Dire Straits blaze a path through blues-based rock and progressive atmospherics, and the remaining songs (the title track, “It Never Rains” and singles “Private Investigations” and “Industrial Disease”) are equally rewarding.  Of all Dire Straits albums, LOVE OVER GOLD may be the one that best displays guitar virtuoso Mark Knopfler's fine fretwork, so we'll give the gold-certified collection another spin in honor of the man's birthday.

In the early 1990s, a wave of groups that used guitars to build hazy walls of sound crested in Britain; dubbed “shoegazers” because of their players' focus on effects pedals, these bands made some of the most dreamiest sounds in alternative rock. Oxford quartet Ride were leaders of this movement, and their debut NOWHERE remains among its crowning achievements, cited by Pitchfork as one of the decade's top 100 albums. Effectively coupling melody and distortion with spacey neo-psychedelia, the Sire set features 11 originals by guitarist Andy Bell and Mark Gardner including the shimmering single “Vapor Trail.” Bell turns 45 today, and we'll celebrate the birthday with a trip to NOWHERE.

With classical training and a strong jazz background informing her brand of R&B, Roberta Flack was among the most distinctive artists on the radio in the early 1970s. She had a pair of No.1 hits and a couple of Grammys to her credit when she entered the studio to cut FEEL LIKE MAKIN' LOVE, and the title track was another smash; it topped the U.S. singles chart on this day in 1974. The Atlantic Records collection was the first she produced herself - under the pseudonym “Rubina Flake” - employing a small army of top jazz players and background singers (including future stars Patti Austin and Deniece Williams) to sublime effect. Beyond the title hit, songs like “Mr. Magic” and “Feelin' That Glow” set the tone for FEEL LIKE MAKIN' LOVE: ethereal beauty, rich emotional texture and intimate reverie.

James Blunt was a promising British songwriter with a publishing deal when producer Linda Perry took him under her wing as a performer. With a distinctive falsetto and equally strong material, Blunt's BACK TO BEDLAM quickly became one of the best sellers in U.K. pop history. If heartfelt ballads like “Goodbye My Lover” and “You're Beautiful” (which topped the British singles chart on this day in 2005) dominate the proceedings, the singer-songwriter has more than just romance on his mind here; “No Bravery” deals with Blunt's service in Kosovo in 1999 as a member of the Royal Armed Forces. A striking debut that sold more than 11 million copies around the world, BACK TO BEDLAM weaves a wistful spell that continues to captivate listeners a decade later.

Even if the white-winged creature in Stevie Nicks' hand on the cover of BELLA DONNA isn't the dove mentioned in “Edge of Seventeen,” Fleetwood Mac’s resident enchantress sings like a bird throughout this set. Then at the pinnacle of the pop world, Stevie crafted a solo debut that was as hit-laden as a Mac album, with “Stop Draggin' My Heart Around” and “Leather and Lace” both reaching the Top Ten on the U.S. singles chart. Those two songs were duets with Tom Petty (who coproduced the album with Jimmy Iovine) and Don Henley, respectively, and other guest stars include members of Little Feat, the E Street Band and the M.G.’s. More than 30 years after the quadruple-platinum BELLA DONNA's release, its glitter has yet to fade.

With their poofy dyed hair and goofy band name, it was tough to take Kajagoogoo seriously, and that was as it should be - the danceable synth-pop on the Leighton, U.K. quintet's debut WHITE FEATHERS was all about having a good time. The 1983 collection was helmed by Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes and that band's producer Colin Thurston, and its 10 originals include the New Wave classic “Too Shy.” But there's plenty more to love beyond that Top 10 U.S. hit here; songs like “Hang On Now,” “Ooh To Be Ah” and the title track are tuneful and hook-filled with a dash of jazz sprinkled in. The band's sound changed considerably with the departure of vocalist Limahl following this release, but WHITE FEATHERS is pure '80s (John Hughes plucked an instrumental off of it to open his film Sixteen Candles), and we'll give it another spin in honor of Kajagoogoo keyboardist Stuart Croxford Neale's birthday.

This week in 1967, Pink Floyd released their debut, THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN. Cut at Abbey Road while The Beatles were recording SGT. PEPPER (and employing the Fabs' engineer Norman Smith as producer), the album stands as one of the cornerstones of British psychedelia. The collection is unique in the Floyd catalog for the dominating presence of lead guitarist/vocalist Syd Barrett, who wrote or cowrote all but one of the album's 11 songs. Though Barrett's copious consumption of LSD would soon lead to his departure from the band, here it fosters a hallucinatory listening experience, aided by the use of echo and other studio effects. Split between shorter pop-psych pieces (“Bike,” “Lucifer Sam”) and extended improvisations (such as concert staples “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive”), THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN hailed the dawning of a new age and the arrival of one of rock's greatest groups.