Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain (1984):  Prince is a musical prodigy who signed with Warner Bros.

Elvis Presley – Elvis’ Worldwide Gold Award Hits, Parts 1 & 2 (1974):  Elvis Presley was the first and probably still the greatest rock and roll star, certainly among individual performers.

The Police – Ghost in the Machine (1981):  The Police is one of the more sophisticated rock bands of the punk/new wave era; their reggae-inflected sound with an underlying punk sensibility and a willingness to incorporate a host of musical influences was a winning

Gene Pitney – Gene Pitney’s Greatest Hits (1967):  Also known as Gene Pitney’s Greatest Hits of All Times, my copy of Gene Pitney’s Greatest Hits was made in Taiwan on the First Records label; and it even has orange-colored vinyl – rather unusual for the 1960’s.

The Pirates of Penzance (Broadway Cast) (1981):  As the career of a rock musician becomes established, most get at least a little out of their comfort zone, and nobody else did that to the same extent as Linda Ronstadt.

Pink Floyd – The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967):  The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the debut album by Pink Floyd – whose name is taken from

Wilson Pickett – Mr.

Edith Piaf – The Best of Edith Piaf (1965):  With the exception of opera (typically sung in Italian), English-speaking audiences almost completely ignore music that is not sung in English, particularly in the United States.

The Phantom of the Opera (Original London Cast) (1987):  Like Les Misèrables, The Phantom of the Opera was originally a French novel, as written by Gaston Leroux in the early 20th Century; the story is set in the historic

Peter, Paul and Mary – Peter, Paul and Mary (1962):  Peter, Paul and Mary came out of the folk revival of the early 1960’s and became surely the most popular American folk group in history.