Bill DeMain

Greta Van Fleet have emerged from the darkness and uncertainty of the last few years with Starcatcher, a retro-fuelled blast of cosmic light and love that feels like it’s one for the ages

A chance encounter with a fantasy novel inspired Stevie Nicks' witchy hit and helped to resurrect Fleetwood Mac

Guns N' Roses changed the shape of rock'n'roll when they emerged in the mid-eighties. Here's a half-century of their very best, and the stories behind them.

Five must-hear albums that answer the burning question: what is country rock?

Songwriter, producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist… Todd Rundgren's is a diverse and distinguished catalogue from a restless and progressive artist

Southern Rock is inextricably tied to the land and character of the American South - and here are five albums that tell its tale

Much-loved singer-guitarist Peter Frampton has delivered more that 50 years' worth of compelling songcraft and searing guitar playing - and these are his best albums

"I anticipated that a lot of people might get weird about it" - George Harrison on My Sweet Lord, his love song to The Creator

How Prince learned to play nice with others, how he learned to rock, and how he made Purple Rain, his world-beating sixth album

"We didn’t really care about scenes: For us, it always came down to the song” - Jellyfish's Roger Manning Jr

After guitarist Duane Allman’s tragic death, the Allman Brothers Band pulled together and recorded the landmark double album Eat A Peach

Inspired by a single line from a gospel song, Paul Simon's classic Bridge Over Troubled Water has been covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Aretha Franklin

Originally a b-side, Joni Mitchell's generational classic Woodstock found its biggest audience with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida started life as a 90-second country ballad, but turned into a psychedelic and cultural landmark

The Doobie Brothers' Long Train Runnin' was an instrumental showcase for "half-hour solos" before their producer saw its hit potential

Jeff Beck's first single was his biggest hit, but he would go on to describe it as "a pink toilet seat" hanging around his neck

All those shimmering pop masterpieces about dysfunctional relationships can be traced back to a single Fleetwood Mac song

Featuring one of the greatest wah solos of all time, this is the story of the Chicago classic 25 or 6 to 4

The story of Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot: "I can’t say those words out loud with a smile on my face"

Santana made a hit of Peter Green's Black Magic Woman, but that's only a small part of the song's journey

A billion streams makes Toto's Africa one of the most beloved songs in rock history, even if its writer doesn't know why

Jellyfish founder member and keyboard player Roger Manning Jr picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and reveals the song that makes him cry

One critic described Waterloo Sunset as "the most beautiful song in the English language", and for some it's the ultimate London anthem

Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith on digging jazz, doing things on his own terms, and Bob Dylan confusing him with Taylor Swift