One of the most exciting releases of last month was legendary retro surf pop rock band Beach Boy’s Love Songs album. If you adore summer feel and ocean’s waves, romance under sun and surfing fun, this is a best buy. Wonderful love songs. Most songs are new stereo mixes and specially recorded for this album.

Their less known songs like In the Parkin’ Lot, Keep an Eye on Summer and Girls on the Beach are also in this new pop music release of 2009.

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Gloria Gaynor made a strike with one of the most played and recognized disco tune of all times, I will survive. Easily reached to top of Billboard Hot 100, several UK and world charts in a short time. In pop culture, several women rights and gay groups use this song as an anthem because of the powerful lyrics.

Sister Sledge’s We are family hit #3 in US charts. Interestingly, it was refused first time when offered to Atlantic Records by Sister Sledge members. Then, released from another company.

Old Time Rock and Roll is a song made very famous by Bob Seger and it is currently one of the iconic classic rock songs.

Now, here comes a rock song by a disco twist. Heart of Glass by Blondie. There were great controversy in music critics, some accused Blondie (A well known new wave band of New York at that times) releasing and selling out a disco song.

Good Times by Chic, Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes, My Sharona by the Knack and Born To Be Alive by Patrick Hernadez are other best songs of 1979 which had dominated the pop and disco music charts.

I already had a copy of ABBA GOLD at the time I bought The Definitive Collection, but now this CD has rendered my ABBA GOLD CD obsolete – it contains all the tracks that were on ABBA GOLD and more. It also includes many of the lesser-known singles that made it onto MORE ABBA GOLD (i.e. “Head Over Heels,” “The Day Before You Came,” and “Summer Night City”). In addition, this collection presents the tunes chronologically, so one can hear and make note of how ABBA’s sound changed and evolved during their decade-plus-long time together. It’s a shame that just because of “Dancing Queen” (their only song to hit #1 in the United States), many Americans think of ABBA as simply a “disco” act and dismiss them as such. In reality, ABBA were so much more. They dabbled in almost every time of popular music imaginable. Yes, they did disco (“Voulez-Vous,” “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme,” and the pounding “Summer Night City”), but they also did Latin-flavored folk tunes (“Fernando” and “Chiquitita”), pure pop ballads (the heartbreaking “The Winner Takes It All,” the last of their four U.S. top 10 pop hits and also a #1 Adult Contemporary single, as was “Fernando”), synthesizer rock (“The Visitors”), even German klezmer-ish music (“I Do, I Do…”). Simply put, ABBA could take any genre of music and make it their own, with fun and often quirky arrangements and intricate harmonies. Bjorn and Benny were (and still are) musical geniuses, and Frida and Agnetha were blessed with two of the most beautiful voices ever to grace vinyl. If Agnetha’s powerful performance on “The Winner Takes It All” doesn’t tug at your heartstrings, you have ice water running through your veins.

The Definitive Collection

An important turning point for popular music was the “speed war” of the late 1940s: a battle among the record labels of the day to enforce their own standard. The dominating format, the 10 inches (25 cm) 78 (rpm) disc, was challenged in 1948 by the new 33 ? rpm 12 inches (30 cm), and then in 1949 by the 45 rpm 7 inches (18 cm). Next came the switch in the material records were made of, from shellac to vinyl; the new component, combined with the slow 33 ? rpm playing speed, allowed recordings to extend their duration further than was previously possible, and gave birth to the long playing record (LP). Changes continued with the invention of the multitrack tape recorder, permitting completely electronic studio recordings for the first time, and the advent of stereophonic sound in 1958.

The first major pop stars as such were the crooners of the 1930s and ’40s. Bing Crosby sold millions of records, as did Frank Sinatra (arguably the first modern pop star, with screaming teenage female fans – the bobbysoxers), and in Britain, Al Bowly.

Curiously, pop music charts as such didn’t exist until 1952, when the first Top Twenty was recorded. It came at an interesting time, as “teenagers” really came into being.

1. Last Dance – Donna Summer
2. Disco Inferno – Trammps
3. Wonderful Tonight (Live) – Eric Clapton
4. Just The Way You Are – Billy Joel
5. Summer Nights – Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta
6. We are the champions – Queen
7. Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees
8. We Will Rock You – Queen
9. Copacabana – Barry Manilow
10. Macho Man – Village People

1. Dancing Queen – Abba
2. Queen – We Will Rock You – Queen
3. Brick House – Commodores
4. Got To Give It Up – Marvin Gaye
5. Disco Inferno – The Trammps
6. Hotel California – Eagles
7. Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffett
8. Don’t Stop – Fleetwood Mac
9. Moondance – Van Morrison
10. Free Bird – Lynyrd Skynyrd

1. December, 1963 – Oh What A Night! – Four Seasons
2. Shake Your Booty – KC and The Sunshine Band
3. Afternoon Delight – The Starland Vocal Band
4. You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine – Lou Rawls
5. Get Up Offa That Thing – James Brown
6. Take The Money And Run – Steve Miller Band
7. Dream On – Aerosmith
8. More Than a Feeling – Boston
9. You Sexy Thing – Hot Chocolate
10. Love Machine – The Miracles

1. Get Down Tonight – KC and the Sunshine Band
2. That’s The Way – KC and the Sunshine Band
3. Cut the Cake – Average White Band
4. Lady Marmalade – Patti & LaBelle
5. Jive Talkin’ – Bee Gees
6. You’re The First, The Last, My Everything – Barry White
7. Shining Stars – Earth Wind and Fire
8. Some Kind Of Wonderful – Grand Funk
9. Send In The Clowns – Judy Collins
10. Hustle – Van McCoy

1. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
2. Takin’ Care of Business – Bachman Turner Overdrive
3. The Loco-Motion – Grand Funk
4. The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me – Gladys Knight and
   the Pips
5. Piano Man – Billy Joel
6. Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe – Barry White
7. The Way We Were – Barbara Streisand
8. Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas
9. Jungle Boogie – Kool and the Gang
10. Tell Me Something Good – Rufus

1. Let’s Get It On – Marvin Gaye
2. Love Train: The Best of the O’Jays – O’Jays
3. Money – Pink Floyd
4. Ramblin’ Man – Allman Brothers Band
5. Friends – Bette Midler
6. Time in a Bottle – Jim Croce
7. Touch Me In The Morning – Diana Ross
8. Crocodile Rock – Elton John
9. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life – Stevie Wonder
10. Feelin’ Stronger Every Day – Chicago