A somewhat unnecessary greatest-hits for the Seventies power-pop band the three albums big star recorded during its poor-selling four-year run in the Seventies combined Beatles-style pop clarity with lovelorn fragility and a rhythmic propulsiveness derived from the R&B they heard growing up in Memphis. Radio City and #1 Record brim over with punchy songs that served as the blueprint for almost every power-pop band to follow, and the much darker Third/Sister Lovers is a depressive masterpiece. This compilation collects winners from all three albums, along with live cuts and a couple of tracks from solo records by co-founders Alex Chilton and Chris Bell. The uninitiated would do well to start with this solid sampler, though they'd do even better to pick up a copy of the 1992 reissue of Radio City and #1 Record, which collects both albums on a single disc and has long been one of the CD era's greatest bargains.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."