On this album, considered their best by many, you never quite know if the Beatles are compiling a resume of their song-crafting prowess or just pulling your leg. They're not telling, and does it really matter anyway?

This man's amazing body of work is worth learning French for, and here is the master of the quadruple-and-beyond entendre at the height of his game. When the Velvets were writing songs about heroin, bold though that was, Gainsbourg was writing songs about plushophilia and what-have-you.

Former Walker Brother Scott Walker (ne Engel) is enjoying a whole new popularity, but his influence on other artists was already immense, thanks to albums like this one, where his haunting baritone plumbed depths of emotion and darkness "vocal" music never visited before or since - not to mention cemented his position as the English-speaking world's definitive interpreter of Jacques Brel.

England's answer to the Bacharach-and-David-era Dionne Warwick - at least during the years documented on this album. Trent and Hatch's perky, upbeat, quintessentially British songs capture the wondering, optimistic side of the Sixties perfectly. "Downtown" is only the beginning.

A Simon and Garfunkel pop-art record? You better believe it. "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine," "A Simple Desultory Philippic" and especially the haunting "7:00 News/Silent Night" are about as telling, and fiercely sarcastic, as 60's pop music gets.