The Hollies

The Hollies were right on the front lines of the British Invasion, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Beatles, the Kinks, and company — and matching them hit for hit. With heavy-duty harmonies from Graham Nash, Allan Clarke, and Tony Hicks, the group stormed the charts with the snake-charmer melody of "Stop, Stop, Stop" and the frothy folk-rock of "Carrie-Anne," but it wasn't long before they took a slightly more complex turn, with Dylan-inspired tunes like "King Midas In Reverse." And even after Nash split to start a certain supergroup with American pals Crosby and Stills, the Hollies' hit train kept hurtling forward, making stunning '70s stops for such smashes as the raw, bluesy rocker "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" and the utterly transcendent, lump-in-the-throat ballad "The Air That I Breathe. Explore the early adventures of the Hollies, from soul shakers to fired-up folk, in Next Steps.

Though the Hollies eventually found their way into everything from psychedelia to soulful ballads, their early cuts helped define the sound of '60s British "beat music" — their first single trailed the Beatles' debut by mere months. They showed their rough-and-ready American R&B roots in 1963 with a revved-up remake of the Zodiacs' classic "Stay." The lads from Lancashire got downright bluesy with the raw-throated howl and wailing harmonica of "You Know He Did." Of course, by '65, they already had an eye on the American folk scene, turning Peter, Paul & Mary's gospel-tinged "The Very Last Day" into the most rocking reckoning with "judgement day" you've ever heard. Take a trip into the sweetly swirling world of psychedelia in Deep Cuts.

As 1967 melted magically into the Summer of Love, the Hollies — along with the rest of the rock world — started taking a slightly more psychedelic turn, soaking up the spirit of the '60s counterculture and shooting it back out in the form of sweetly swirling psych-pop gems. The furious fuzztones and otherworldly effects on "Then the Heartaches Begin" suggest a band of Brits keeping close track of the Bay Area's bustling scene. The rush of backwards tapes and lyrics about "traveling the astral planes" launched the turned-on, tuned-in "Try It" into an appropriately high-flying orbit. Even in 1970, the psychedelic era's mind-expanding effects could be felt on ambitious orchestral-rock epics, like the heady mini-suite "Confessions of a Mind."

Not only did Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the Hollies rack up a shocking number of smash singles in the U.S. and Europe, but they also outlasted nearly all of their British Invasion peers through constant musical evolution. How else could you explain the fact that the same batch of Brits who hit with a cover of U.S soul songbird Doris Troy's "Just One Look" in 1963, and unleashed searing, psychedelic guitar licks in '67 on "Have You Ever Loved Somebody," were still chugging along in the '70s with the sweeping, soulful balladry of their transcontinental Top 10 tune "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." Never mind the fact that they were still scoring hits all the way into the '90s, and taking their tunes to the stage in the 21st century. It's a lot to absorb, but we've funneled the finest from every phase of the Hollies' heroic journey into one place, so you can start soaking it all up right here.