Taking more than two years from conception to release, Stevie Wonder's classic 1976 double album, Songs in the Key of Life, is now generally considered his finest creative hour in an enduring, influential career of nearly four decades. Songs in the Key of Life is also regarded by many music fans as one of the outstanding albums to appear in that entire timespan. Released in ...

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Starring: Dorothy Ashby, Shirley Brewer, Ben Bridges, Isiah 'Greg' Brown, Imhotep Gary Byrd
Directed By: David Heffernan

GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD gave Elton John his second number one album in both the American and British charts and provided him with four top ten singles. Interviews with Elton John himself, as well as with songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, there are contributions from musicians Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson, Gus Dudgeon (producer), David Hentschel (engineer), Del Newman (orchestral ...

Manufacturer: Eagle Rock Ent
Starring: Elton John, Classic Albums

The songs and story of this classic album with contributions by Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman, Todd Rundgren, Ellen Foley and Karla DeVito. Since its release in 1977, Bat Out of Hell has gone on to sell an estimated 30 million copies and become one of the top five biggest selling albums of all time. Released during the days of the disco boom and the advent of punk rock, Bat Out of ...

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Starring: Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman, Karla DeVito, Max Weinberg, Todd Rundgren
Directed By: Bob Smeaton

This installment of the Classic Albums series looks at the making of Lou Reed's seminal glam-rock solo album, Transformer, featuring a relaxed Reed (though decidedly less glam than he was in '72) looking like he's having the time of his life as he reminisces and isolates separate tracks to illustrate how the album came together. Bassist Herbie Flowers demonstrates how he recorded the ...

Manufacturer: Eagle Rock Ent
Starring: Lou Reed

The Grateful Dead are a unique phenomenon. One of the most successful live touring bands in the world, their longevity is founded on their desire to play music their way, coupled with an extraordinarily close relationship to their huge following. From Anthem to Beauty tells the story of the band and their journey from the experimental "Anthem of the Sun" (recorded in 1967/1968) to the ...

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Directed By: Grateful Dead

The story of Paul Simon's landmark 1986 album, Graceland. Recorded in New York and South Africa, Graceland not only sold 14 million copies, but it was also named Album of the Year at the 1986 Grammy Awards. It brought the sound of South African music to audiences around the world. This acclaimed film shows how a career setback for Paul Simon precipitated the inspiration for ...

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Starring: Linda Ronstadt, Philip Glass, Morris Goldberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Roy Halee
Directed By: Jeremy Marre

Iron Maiden's 1982 breakthrough, The Number of the Beast--its first with leather-lunged vocalist Bruce Dickinson--remains a heavy-metal watershed, and this Classic Albums program reunites the major players (including producer Martin Birch) for the undoubted pleasure of longtime Maiden fans. The interviews with band members and rock journalists in the 50-minute program touch on Maiden's ...

Manufacturer: Eagle Rock Ent
Starring: Iron Maiden

This is the definitive story of the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, with specially recorded versions of Christine McVie's "Songbird" and Lindsay Buckingham's acoustic version of "Never Going Back Again." 75 minutes.

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Starring: Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, John McVie
Directed By: David Heffernan

An outstanding entry in the Classic Albums video series, this hourlong documentary, produced in 1999, assembles the creators of U2's The Joshua Tree to comment about the musical magic that occurred a dozen years earlier in a home studio in Dublin. Merging past and present, coproducers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, mixer Steve Lillywhite, and guitarist The Edge isolate separate tracks on ...

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Starring: Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., U2

Originally produced for cable and home video as a documentary project, the Classic Albums series offers in-depth profiles of enduring rock and pop albums built around first-person interviews with the artists, producers, and musicians that created them. Their strong sonic debt makes their DVD issues problematic, since the segments aren't intended to replace the original audio recordings, only to ...

Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
Starring: Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Bob Pridden, Pete Townshend
Directed By: Bob Smeaton