Classic Rock Buying Guides

Buying guide From surf guitars to psychedelia, peace to paranoia, the 60s sound of Los Angeles and San Francisco was bright and multicoloured

Buying guide Stevie Ray Baughan hot-wired the 80s blues revival and launched a new generation of players

Buying guide One of rock’s great frontmen, Sammy Hagar is a master of good-time rock’n’roll, in big-name bands and also as a solo artist

Buying guide Tom Petty crossed and blurred boundaries, making him impossible to pin down – and these are his best albums

Buying guide Not only are The Kinks credited with creating the heavy metal blueprint, they also recorded some of rock’s most enduring songs. Here are their best albums

Buying guide From stadium-filling rock to the ultimate lighter-waving ballads, AOR titans Journey and their various frontmen have done it all

Buying guide A group of talented musicians with a bunch of tracks among the top of the AOR pops, Toto are among the genre’s big boys - and these are their best albums

Buying guide Hanoi Rocks' early records and electrifying live shows saw them tipped for superstardom, but fate dealt them a catastrophic blow

Buying guide One of the great British prog bands, a power trio and a supergroup, ELP left a legacy that includes some classic prog-rock albums

Buying guide With a pair of pretty boys and a pair of geeks and some glorious songs, Cheap Trick once ruled the pop-rock world

Buying guide Amp-humpin’, high-octane instrumentalists! Is it music made by guitarists for guitarists? Not always!

Buying guide From punk beginnings to Britpop and avant-rock, the Woking Wonder has a thousand things he wants to say to you – and these are his best albums

Buying guide Lynyrd Skynyrd blended southern soul and hard rock to define southern rock better than anyone - and these are their best albums

Buying guide Jeff Lynne's vision for ELO was more ambitious than most of his peers – but which of his grand ideas hit home the hardest?

Buying guide Def Leppard took Sheffield to the world's stadiums and arenas, staring down tragedy and selling millions in the process. These are their best albums

Buying guide Aerosmith might have come to the end of the road, but their best albums are swaggering, charismatic evidence of a unique rock'n'roll legacy

Buying guide Illinois rockers REO Speedwagon sold millions of records, with hits that have gone down in power ballad history - and these are their best albums

Buying guide There are infinitely more highlights in the Canadian singer-songwriter’s bulging catalogue than just 'that song'

Buying guide The Cars motored up the charts with a trailer full of hits in the 70s and 80s before their engine fell out. Here's a look back at their albums, in chronological order