Composers and songwriters

Ever since their debut single was released in 1983, The Smiths have influenced musicians worldwide with their jangly guitar pop, infectious melodies and front man Morrissey's passionate lyrics.

As a band, The Beatles released over 200 songs in the eight years between 1962 and 1970.

Some albums are simply undeniable watersheds in an artist's career.

Bat Out Of Hell was released in 1977 during the height of disco fever and punk rock.

In the mid-1960s, two notable bands emerged from the rarified cloisters of Charterhouse Public School in rural Surrey: The Anon, with guitarists Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford and The Garden Wall, a unit driven by the duo of Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks.

Once, there were four university students who started a rock band named after a firetruck.

Slade were one of the biggest British bands of the 1970s.

The 1980s saw Alice Cooper arguably release his most diverse collection of albums, ranging from new wave to metal to full-on radio-friendly rock.

The 1970s was the decade that saw the arrival of Alice Cooper as a major force in the rock firmament.

An enigma, Leonard Norman Cohen was possibly the most improbable bohemian intellectual singer/songwriter in music history.

90125, released towards the end of 1983, was Yes' best-selling album.

In 1998, the future of the Red Hot Chili Peppers seemed extremely uncertain.

The Stooges were formed in 1967 in Ann Arbor, outside Detroit.

Of all the British bands that rose to fame in rock's golden age, Nektar remain the most mysterious and least documented.

One of the most pivotal albums in the evolution of rock music, few other recordings have had more impact than the 1965 Bob Dylan classic, Bringing It All Back Home.

Depending on who you asked, George Harrison was many different things to different people.

One of the most iconic and successful British bands of the 1980s, Level 42 are also arguably the ultimate 'fusion' unit, streamlining their energetic early jazz/funk/rock sound into slick, effortlessly-soulful pop music.

Arguably the greatest album by the best rock band ever, The Beatles - also known as The White Album - proved to be a watershed recording.

This book charts all of the albums which feature The Chic Organisation, helmed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.

Few singers have been able to change with the times like Johnny Mathis.

Formed as shambolic art-punk four-piece Seymour whilst attending London's Goldsmiths University, the rechristened Blur released their debut album Leisure in 1991, marking them as promising indie upstarts in thrall to the voguish sub-genres of baggy and shoegaze.

Released in 1969, Let It Bleed was The Rolling Stones' eighth studio album and tenth in the USA.

'He was probably the most naturally talented person I've ever worked with.

You could consider Kate Bush's The Dreaming to be her finest moment, depending on whether you value the rejection of compromise and see that as a sign of authenticity.

In January 1981, the four members of Bucks Fizz - Mike Nolan, Cheryl Baker, Jay Aston, and Bobby G - met each other for the first time.

We only ever get glimpses of Ian Dury; nothing is as it seems.

Towards the tail end of the 1980s, Neil Hannon: a talented singer/songwriter from Northern Ireland, formed his first line-up of The Divine Comedy.

When Ashley Hutchings broke away from Fairport Convention in 1969, he recruited two musical duos to form Steeleye Span.

It started off so well.

This revised edition adds previously unpublished material from Joe Strummer's personal notebook and cartoonist Ray Lowry's archive.

The hard-rocking British supergroup was fronted by Steve Marriott, possessor of what is generally regarded as one of the finest ever rock and blue-eyed soul voices.

This is a new edition, bringing the Yes story up to date for 2020 and specifically including a brand new section on the 2019 album 'From A Page'.

When Yes ran into problems recording their tenth album in Paris at the end of 1979, it was almost the end.

Bob Dylan is the magician who sprinkled poetic fairy dust onto the popular music of the early sixties.

There has never been - and never will be - another band like Opeth.

Swedish quartet ABBA released their third, self-titled album in 1975.

Since their formation in the early 1970s, Earth, Wind & Fire have been at the forefront of popular music.