Whitney Houston is the eponymous debut album of American R&B and pop singer Whitney Houston. It was released on February 14, 1985, by Arista Records. The album initially had a slow commercial response, but began getting more popular in the summer of 1985, and it eventually topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks in 1986, generated three number-one singles — "Saving All My Love for You", "How Will I Know" and "Greatest Love of All". The album in these very rare cases, it began to enjoyed the global success by a new black female artist, topping the albums chart in many countries such as Canada, Australia, Norway and Sweden, peaking at number 2 in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland. The album was certified diamond for shipments of 10 million units or more on March 16, 1999, and later 13× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on July 29, 1999, making it one of the top 100 best-selling albums in the United States. It has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. In 1986, at the 28th Grammy Awards, Whitney Houston received four nominations; including Album of the Year and won one, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "Saving All My Love for You". For the 29th Grammy Awards of 1987, the album earned one nomination for Record of the Year for "Greatest Love of All". In 2003, the album was ranked number 254 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Jordan: The Comeback is Prefab Sprout's largely successful attempt to embrace the breadth of popular music; wisely reuniting with producer Thomas Dolby, Paddy McAloon freely indulges his myriad ambitions and obsessions to weave a dense, finely textured tapestry closer in spirit and construction to a lavish Broadway musical than to the conventional rock concept LP. Over the course of no less than 19 tracks, McAloon chases his twin preoccupations of religion and celebrity, creating a loose thematic canvas perfect for his expanding musical palette; quickly dispensing with common pop idioms, the album moves from tracks like the samba-styled "Carnival 2000" to the self-explanatory "Jesse James Symphony" and its companion piece "Jesse James Bolero" with remarkable dexterity.

North, Elvis Costello's 20th album of new material, follows the deliberately classicist When I Was Cruel by a mere year, but it feels more the sequel to 1998's Burt Bacharach collaboration, Painted From Memory, or even 1993's roundly ignored classical pop experiment, The Juliet Letters. Costello has abandoned clanging guitars and drums of Cruel – abandoned rock & roll, really – to return to a set of classically influenced songs, all "composed, arranged and conducted" by the man himself (on The Juliet Letters, he was merely the composer and voice).

Plays Live is the first live and fifth album overall released by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. This album was originally released as a double album and longplay cassette in 1983, with sixteen songs. It was re-released in 1985, as a single CD version called Plays Live (Highlights) with only twelve songs, some of which are edited from their full-length versions, so that the album could fit on a single CD. It was eventually re-released in its entirety as a double CD set in 1987. In 2002, a remastered version of the Highlights version was re-released.

Natural Boogie is the second studio album released by Hound Dog Taylor and his band The HouseRockers. Released on Alligator Records in 1974, it was the follow up to their 1971 debut album Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers. Natural Boogie was recorded at Sound Studios in Chicago, and produced by Hound Dog Taylor and Bruce Iglauer. It was Taylor's second album, and the last to be released during his lifetime.

Halie Loren is an international, award-winning jazz vocalist/songwriter based in Eugen, Oregon. She brings a fresh and original perspective to time-honored musical paths, channeling her innate understanding of connectedness across musical boundaries to forge bonds with diverse audiences in North America, Asia, and Europe. She sings in multiple languages including; Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Korean as well as her native English. With Halie Loren's 11th album, she has concocted a blend of songs selected from the American Songbook, favorite compositions from iconic singer-songwriters, and Halie's original song repertoire that explore themes of longing, seeking, and seeing with new eyes. They speak to the falling away of old illusions and outgrown desires and finding new visions for love and life, and what it means to find a renewed sense of self through allowing some dreams to die and make space for new dreams to be born.

In 2017, legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore brought his new Rainbow line up to the UK for three unique concerts; these memorable musical moments will be released in high quality format on a double disc CD set. Also included in this amazing package will be the first time ever seen backstage videos. Go behind the scenes with Rainbow. Special interviews exclusive to this video set with Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie Romero, Jens Johansson, Bob Nouveau, Drummer Dave, the lovely backing singers Lady Lynn and Candice Night as well as the phenomenal crew that brings these shows to the fans; production managers, lighting director, guitar technician etc.

Buoyed by two U.K. number one singles in "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru," The Slider became T. Rex's most popular record on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the fact that it produced no hits in the U.S. The Slider essentially replicates all the virtues of Electric Warrior, crammed with effortless hooks and trashy fun. All of Bolan's signatures are here – mystical folk-tinged ballads, overt sexual come-ons crooned over sleazy, bopping boogies, loopy nonsense poetry, and a mastery of the three-minute pop song form. The main difference is that the trippy mix of Electric Warrior is replaced by a fuller, more immediate-sounding production. Bolan's guitar has a harder bite, the backing choruses are more up-front, and the arrangements are thicker-sounding, even introducing a string section on some cuts (both ballads and rockers).

By 1973's Tanx, the T. Rex hit-making machine was beginning to show some wear and tear, but Marc Bolan still had more than a few winners up his sleeve. It was also admirable that Bolan was attempting to broaden the T. Rex sound – soulful backup singers and horns are heard throughout, a full two years before David Bowie used the same formula for his mega-seller Young Americans. However, Tanx did not contain any instantly recognizable hits, as their past couple of releases had, and the performances were not quite as vibrant, due to non-stop touring and drug use. Despite an era of transition looming on the horizon for the band, tracks such as "Rapids," "Highway Knees," "The Street & Babe Shadow," and "Born to Boogie" contain the expected classic T. Rex sound.

Veteran Latin crooner Julio Iglesias released his top charting album 'Divorcio,' in 2003, led by the radio single "Corazon de Papel" (Heart Of Paper). Julio once again proves what a master he is at creating romantic music as songs that are made for the dancefloor. In it's first day of sales, 'Divorcio' sold a record 350,000 albums in Spain and reached the number 1 spot on the charts in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Russia. In 2003 and 2004, aided by the success the album, Iglesias went on a ten-month world tour which took him from Europe to Asia and then on to North America, South America and Africa. More than half the shows on that tour sold out within days of going on sale. Every song on this album is a gem, each in it's own right, and beautifully arranged.

Mannerisms may be expensive and difficult to find, but it's the place to start collecting Manfred Mann's post-EMI material. The compilation was originally issued in 1976, containing a dozen A-sides and notable album tracks, and it was decent as far as it went, filling in a few holes and re-exposing some worthwhile album tracks. What will surprise many listeners (especially Americans, who may well never have heard of, much less heard, these sides) is how late Manfred Mann embraced the basic British Invasion sound, well into 1967, and also how good a psychedelic band they were.

The departure of frontman Paul Jones left Manfred Mann with a large void to fill in the summer of 1966. Not only was Jones a charismatic vocalist, he was also a writer and one of Manfred Mann's key selling points with the record buying public. The group's record company, HMV, realised this and hedged their bets by signing Jones for a new solo deal, but dropping the band from its roster. In late 1966 while Jones was enjoying success with his first solo single, "High Time," a new version of Manfred Mann emerged with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like A Woman" on Fontana. The new line up featured Mike D'Abo as vocalist (previously with A Band Of Angels) and was augmented by Klaus Voorman on bass, with Tom McGuiness switching to lead guitar. Despite the magnitude of this personnel change, the single was a top 10 hit and paved the way for this album, As Is.

Humanoid is the seventeenth studio album by German heavy metal band Accept, released on 26 April 2024. It is the band's first studio album on Napalm Records, with whom Accept had signed with in February 2022, and also marks the first time since 2017's The Rise of Chaos that they had recorded as a five-piece band rather than a six-piece. Humanoid has received positive reviews from critics. Dom Lawson of Blabbermouth.net gave the album a rating of seven-and-a-half out of ten, writing, "For those who enjoyed the previous five, there is absolutely nothing here that fails to live up to expectations.

Praying Mantis are now a well-established band of melodic hard rockers. Formed by brothers Tino and Chris Troy in 1973, together with bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon, and others they spearheaded the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) movement. While they did not see the same dizzying heights of success as some of their contemporaries, Praying Mantis nonetheless became one of THE most influential bands of the NWOBHM. The band has remained active over the years and still records and plays live regularly, while evolving their style from their early beginnings to a more melodic hard rock style. - Musically the new album offers the trademark Mantis sound, with twin guitar leads and sterling vocal work from Jaycee Cuijpers, but what really puts this record apart is the stunning quality of the songwriting which offers a credible mix of catchy songs along with superb epics. To round up the tracklisting the Mantis' offer their own spin to the classic Rainbow hit "I Surrender" (penned by none other than Russ Ballard).

Cut during the fall of 1972, Electric Light Orchestra II was where Jeff Lynne started rebuilding the sound of Electric Light Orchestra following the departure of Roy Wood from the original lineup. It was as personal an effort as Lynne had ever made in music, showcasing his work as singer, songwriter, guitarist, sometime synthesizer player, and producer, and it is more focused than its predecessor but also retains some of the earlier album's lean textures. Lynne, drummer Bev Bevan, bassist Mike D'Albuquerque, and keyboardist Richard Tandy comprise the core of the band, with two cellists and a violinist sawing away around them.