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Columbia has managed to squeeze an impressive, perhaps excessive, number of compilations out of Janis Joplin's relatively slim body of recordings. With this two-CD set, The Essential Janis Joplin, the label's at it again, though it's a good one to get if you don't want to collect all the Joplin releases, and certainly don't want to get the expensive Joplin boxes, but want more than what fits onto a single disc. Including both solo recordings and highlights of her stint with Big Brother & the Holding Company, it has all the songs fans and critics would consider milestones in her career: "Ball and Chain" (a version recorded live in 1967 at the Monterey Pop Festival, not the more familiar one from Cheap Thrills), "Piece of My Heart," "Down on Me," "Summertime," "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)," "Tell Mama" (the live 1970 performance from the expanded edition of Pearl), "Get It While You Can," "Mercedes Benz," and "Me and Bobby McGee." And there are also good tracks that aren't as overly familiar, like "Coo Coo," "Misery'n," "Maybe," "Work Me, Lord," and "A Woman Left Lonely." The substitution of the less familiar renditions of "Ball and Chain" and "Tell Mama" might rankle some consumers expecting to hear the more common ones, but that's frankly unlikely. So what does the set offer to those Joplin fans who already have a lot of her material? Well, not much, but in the time-honored manner of attaching bonus tracks to oft-recycled material, this does have a couple of previously unissued live cuts ("Kozmic Blues" and the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody") from her 1969 set at Woodstock. Those songs are actually reasonably good, but aren't worth buying the whole set for. They would have been a better deal if served out as part of a legit collection of her Woodstock performances, or as a collection of previously unreleased live Joplin performances, if enough high-caliber stuff of the sort was available.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo

The soundtrack to the movie Janis:Little Blue Girl  has been running in cinemas since the 14th of January, 2016. It consists of 17 songs from the iconic singer who went on to become one of the most tragic figures of the Woodstock generation. Amy Berg's documentary shows us an up close and personal view of the musician, who was full of self-doubt which eventually spawned the self-destructive Actress. We witness a woman who prevailed in an era of music completely dominate by men and today, more than 45 years after her death at just 27, many have forgotten of her untimely depart from this world. The soundtrack to the film includes classics like Cry Baby and Piece Of My Heart and is very much like the soundtrack to her beautiful yet painful life. © MH / Qobuz

After the ballad-heavy In the Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle returned to up-tempo, swing material with Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, arguably the vocalist's greatest swing set. Like Sinatra's previous Capitol albums, Songs for Swingin' Lovers! consists of reinterpreted pop standards, ranging from the ten-year-old "You Make Me Feel So Young" to the 20-year-old "Pennies From Heaven" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." Sinatra is supremely confident throughout the album, singing with authority and joy. That joy is replicated in Riddle's arrangements, which manage to rethink these standards in fresh yet reverent ways. Working with a core rhythm section and a full string orchestra, Riddle writes scores that are surprisingly subtle. "I've Got You Under My Skin," with its breathtaking middle section, is a perfect example of how Sinatra works with the band. Both swing hard, stretching out the rhythms and melodies but never losing sight of the original song. Songs for Swingin' Lovers! never loses momentum. The great songs keep coming and the performances are all stellar, resulting in one of Sinatra's true classics.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Though the nominal concept for Mel Tormé's Swings Shubert Alley is Broadway standards, this last moment of pure Tormé brilliance moves much too fast and hard for the concept to be anything but pure swing. Of course it starts out with a bang with the punchy "Too Close for Comfort." Tormé sounds like he's racing the band to the finish of the song on this one (and a few others, like "Too Darn Hot" and "Surrey with the Fringe on Top"), on the latter he repeats the title over and over again with that exuberant voice. As with his other classic swing albums, Tormé does insert a few slower songs; here, "Once in Love with Amy," "A Sleepin' Bee" and "Old Devil Moon" are downtempo, with a smile. The overall mood, however, is unrestrained enthusiasm, and it makes for an excellent record.© John Bush /TiVo

A covers project like Native Sons would under most circumstances be little more than a placeholder. But standard assumptions do not apply when talking about Los Lobos, perhaps the finest and longest-lived American roots assemblage in popular music history. From their big hit cover of Ritchie Valens's immortal, "La Bamba" (recorded for the 1987 Valens biopic of the same name) to the exquisite art rock of their 1992 masterpiece Kiko, this quintet (four of the five members been playing together since high school), are seasoned interpreters who can, cliched as it sounds, literally master any tune from any genre and best of all—still find a lot of joy in doing it. Six years after their last album, Gates of Gold, David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, Louie Pérez, Jr., and Steve Berlin decided to pay tribute to the Southern California musical roots that have influenced their journey. Sounding revitalized by the experience, they look all the way back to when they played weddings and closed out long nights with the sentimental Chicano soul classic, "Where Lovers Go." Being city boys, they were also attuned to garage rock and here give a rousing rendition of "Farmer John" an early guitar band classic written by Don Terry and Dewey Harris but made famous in 1964 by L.A. garage band, The Premiers. After Rosas makes a flavorful pass through "Dichoso," first done by Willie Bobo in 1966, the '70s are represented by two of Stephen Stills' Buffalo Springfield compositions: "Bluebird" and the emblematic "For What It's Worth." A strummy, dreamy take of "Jamaica Say You Will" with David Hidalgo's amazing vocals leading the way pays tribute to singer/songwriter Jackson Browne. The band finds a creative way to deal with the unavoidable legacy of The Beach Boys by covering "Sail On, Sailor," where David Hidalgo, Jr. plays drums and his father delivers a typical knockout vocal performance. The other looming presence for a band from East L.A. is War, and "The World is a Ghetto," with Conrad's son Jason Lozano on drums, highlights fresh angles thanks to vocals by Rosas, Hidalgo and special guest Little Willie G who was the singer on the original. Finally, in the album's only original, Perez and Hidalgo, the band's longtime songwriting team, salute their Los Angeles home in the easygoing title track. Although it's a term that should be used judiciously if at all, Los Lobos are truly an American treasure, a band whose enduring chemistry, multi-dimensional musical talents and heartfelt instincts are unfailing and irreplaceable. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Music for Lovers Only was first released in 1952 as a 10" LP with only eight songs. In 1953 it was released as an expanded 12" with eight more tracks. The album was Jackie Gleason's most popular LP and sold over 500,000 copies. Highlights include "My Funny Valentine," "I'm in the Mood for Love," and "I Only Have Eyes for You." The album's original liner notes include some fun descriptions of the "entrancing setting" for Gleason's music: "A wisp of cigarette smoke in the soft lamplight, the tinkle of a glass, a hushed whisper."© JT Griffith /TiVo