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Dubbed the "masters of mope rock," The Cure rose from Britain's late-'70s punk scene to become one of the biggest-selling "underground" acts of the '80s. Frontman Robert Smith, who has been described as the "messiah of melancholy" and the "guru of gloom," is known for wearing death-white facial makeup, crimson lipstick, and teasing black hair; he is rivaled only by Morriseey as a heartthrob for the discontented. The Cure's goth-pop style is characterized by self-obsessed lyrics, minor-key melodies, and Smith's vexatious whine.

Robert Smith grew up in working-class Crawley, Sussex, a suburb of London. He recalls his childhood years as difficult, a time of run-ins with his parents and the law. At 17 he formed The Easy Cure with childhood friends Laurence Tolhurst and Micheal Dempsey as sort of catharsis for his feelings of frustration. The group's music has remained therapeutic for Smith.

The Cure made its initial splash in the U.K. with the 1979 single "Killing an Arab," which stirred controvery when it reappeared on the mid-'80s retrospective Standing on a Beach: The Signles. Some U.S. radio DJs used the song, which was inspired by Albert Camus' The Stranger, to advance anti-Arab sentiments; the group included a disclaimer with subsequent pressings stating that the song "decries the existence of all prejudice and consequent violence."

While The Cure toured in 1979 as the support act of Siouxsie and the Banshees, the headliner's guitarist quit the band. Smith was recruited to fill in on the tour, beginning an active collaboration with the Banshees. He ultimately devoted much of 1983-84 as a full-time member of the band, recording both the live Nocturne and a studio album, Hyaena. In 1983, he also joined Banshee bassist Steve Severin for a side project called the Glove, releasing one album, Blue Sunshine.

When Smith once again devoted himself to The Cure, the music envolved from the sparse punk pop of that song and other early singles ("Boys Don't Cry," "Jumping Someone Else's Train," "The Lovecats") to the dirgy, moody music of Faith and Seventeen Seconds, to the more focused hits on the later albums Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Disintegration, and Wish.

While The Cure had been a top hitmaking indie band in the U.K. since the early '80s, it wasn't until the release of Standing on a Beach (and its CD-only counterpart, Standing at the Sea) that the band moved beyond its cult status in the U.S. The double-album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me debuted in June 1987, spawning the minor hits "Why Can't I Be You?," "Just Like Heaven," and "Hot! Hot! Hot!!!." In 1989 Disintegrationp reached #12 and included the group's bigget hit yet, "Love Song" (#2). Wish is the band's most successful album to date, reaching #2 and including the surprising upbeat "Friday I'm In Love" (#18). The subsequent tour was documented on record and a film, both titled Show (an additional live collection, Paris, culled from the same tour was also released in 1993).

In 1996 The Cure released Wild Mood Swings (#12), which attempted to broaden the ban'ds sound to include a track of Latin-flavored pop, earning mostly negative reviews, and with "The 13th" (#44) its highest-charting single. Another best-of, Galore, followed in 1997. Then, in 2000, Smith unveiled the band's best-reviewed album in years, Bloodflowers. That same year, Smith launched a world tour by announcing that it would be the band's last. But the bandleader soon began to hedge on that promise, saying all the subsequent attention and sudden, acclaim made him strangely...happy.

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Trying to fit the best of Bob Dylan on a single disc is a little like trying to fit the history of the world into a single textbook. No matter how good a job you do, big chunks of the story are going to be left out. Dylan's best known songs have already filled three volumes of Greatest Hits albums, the box set Biograph, and a double disc Essential Bob Dylan.

Let's call a spade a spade - you can't assemble a best-of that's better than Highway 61 Revisited or Freewheelin' or Blood on the Tracks. Those albums are invulnerable. What you can do is offer a sampler for new listeners. That's what this is - a starting point. You can follow whichever song here strikes your fancy back to the album it came from and find ten more just as good. Consider this a compass and a map.

• Blowin' In The Wind - This song has been listed as #14 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
  
• The Times They Are A-Changin'
  
• Subterranean Homesick Blues
  
• Mr. Tambourine Man - This song was more popular when it was recorded by The Byrds
  
• Like A Rolling Stone
  
• Maggie's Farm
  
• Positively 4th Street
  
• Just Like A Woman
  
• Rainy Day Women #12 & #35
  
• All Along The Watchtower - Made very popular by Mr. Jimi Hendrix!
  
• Lay Lady Lay
  
• Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Covered by Guns 'N' Roses (Axel sang the hell out of this one )
  
• Tangled Up In Blue
  
• Huricane
  
• Make You Feel My Love
  
• Things Have Changed
  
• Someday Baby
  
• Forever Young (No it is NOT the Rod Stewart song )

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From The Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll:
While some accused Ringo Starr of being a clumsy drummer, many more agreed with George Harrison's assessment "Ringo's the best backbeat in the business." And while many in the wake of the Beatles' breakup prdeicted that Starr would be the one without a solo career, he proved them wrong. Not only has he released several LPs (the first came out before the Beatles disbanded) and hit singles, but he's also the only Beatle to establish a film-acting career for himself outside of the band's mid-'6-s movies.

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From ringostarr.com:

To date Ringo has released 23 solo records, which includes 14 studio albums, and continues to tour regularly with his All Starr Band. Ringo’s music, as a solo artist and as a Beatle, is permeated with his personality – his warmth and humor, his exceptional musicianship – have given us songs we all know and love: With A Little Help From My Friends; Don’t Pass Me By; Octopus’ Garden; Photograph; It Don’t Come Easy; Don’t Go Where the Road Don’t Go; La De Da; Memphis in Your Mind; Never Without You.

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From Wikipedia:
In 1957, Starr started his own group with Eddie Miles, which was originally called the "Eddie Miles Band," but evolved into "Eddie Clayton and the Clayton Squares;" "Clayton Square" was a local landmark and "Clayton" Eddie Miles' stage surname. Starr joined the Raving Texans in 1959, a quartet that backed singer Rory Storm. During this time, he got the nickname Ringo, becaues of the rings he wore, beacuse it sounded 'cowboyish', and because the name Starr allowed his drum solos to be billed as 'Starr Time.'

Starr originally met The Beatles in Hamburg, in October 1960, while he was performing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He also sat in for Pete Best on several occasions. When The Beatles removed Best as their drummer on August 16, 1962, Starr was their choice to replace him.

Although Storm had mixed feelings about losing Starr, Best's fans were upset, holding vigils outside Best's house and fighting at the Cavern Club, shouting 'Pete forever! Ringo never!' Similarly, other fans yelled the contrary: "Ringo forever! Pete never!"

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John Lennon:
Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. He was a professional drummer who sang and performed and had Ringo Starr-time and he was in one of the top groups in Britain but especially in Liverpool before we even had a drummer... Ringo's a damn good drummer.

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Drummer Steve Smith:
Before Ringo, drum stars were measured by their soloing ability and virtuosity. Ringo's popularity brought forth a new paradigm in how the public saw drummers. We started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. One of Ringo's great qualities was that he composed unique, stylistic drum parts for the Beatles songs. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and still identify the song.

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Phil Collins:
Starr is vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song "A Day in the Life" are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' He wouldn't know what to do.