Adult-orientated Rock

It doesn't matter whether you call it Album- or Adult- Oriented Rock (or OrientATed, if we're getting all finickity about the English spelling) — the bottom line with AOR is first-rate, pop-rock songwriting by proven greats. The doors have been kicked down, now it's time to kick back and enjoy the expensive sofa, opening up with Journey's bedrock anthem "Don't Stop Believin'," the Little River Band's easy stroll down nostalgia avenue, "Reminiscing," and Fleetwood Mac's perfect alliance of melody and momentum, "Go Your Own Way." Dire Straits, Toto, the Traveling Wilburys, Supertramp . . . all the AOR heavyweights are here.

Crank it up, and ease it back with Boston and Lynyrd Skynyrd, in Next Steps.

Some of the legends among our AOR Essentials are laid back — look no further than "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band, or "Crash Into Me" by the Dave Matthews Band — others sound like they've ploughed their heart, soul, and guts into every note: feel the coarse power of Genesis drummer/singer Phil Collins on "Turn It On Again," or Bryan Adams on "Run to You." Then, bridging those two vibes, there's Lynyrd Skynyrd, with their masterful change-up from freewheelin' rock ballad to hard-driving anthem in "Freebird," and Boston, switching from stadium-shaking power chords to mellow acoustic interludes with majestic ease on "More Than a Feeling."

Van the Man provides the moon, and Warren Zevon adds the werewolves, in Deep Cuts.

You'll never get enough of these tracks: just feel the quality of the rock, from the soft-boiled (Bread's "The Guitar Man") to the hard-edged (Rainbow's "Since You've Been Gone"). In this expertly upholstered Deep Cuts section of our AOR Essentials, Warren Zevon gives us rock 'n' roll lycanthropy on "Werewolves of London," Sherbet adds to the stockpile of AOR piano rock with "Rock Me Gently," Van Morrison brings soul and romance to the selection with his timeless "Moondance," Hall & Oates keep it extra-smooth with "Kiss on My List," and the Rolling Stones strike a winning balance between the raw and the refined on "Mixed Emotions."

Can you fill a stadium? Have you conquered the Pop charts? Do motorists bang out your rhythms on their steering wheels and mimic your riffs on tiny air guitars? Is the natural human reaction to your best chords a spontaneous bottom-lip overbite? If you answered yes to all these questions then you are a god of AOR and, more than likely, you're included among these reverential Essentials. Toto's "Rosanna," Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart," Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" — these are not just songs, they're the very essence of high-end pop-rock. From the respectfully rootsy — "Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)" by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss — to the insanely operatic (Meat Loaf's "Bat out of Hell" and "Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart") we've got it all, in one vintage AOR package.