The very idea that Manfred Mann, perhaps Great Britain's longest running rock band - other than the Rolling Stones - would have "hits" in the 21st century is rather odd and inaccurate (perhaps "hits according to who?" is the question). This set nonetheless features two CDs and 36 tracks. Virtually every single from the earliest Manfred Mann band is here, including "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," "Mighty Quinn," "5-4-3-2-1," "Sha La La," "Hubble Bubble (Toil And Trouble)," as well as wild covers of the hits of the day - because after all, Manfred Mann were, more than anything else, a cover band - "Fox on the Run," "Handbags and Glad Rags," "Just Like a Woman," "If You Gotta Go, Go Now," and of course, the tracks that put retirement money in Bruce Springsteen's bank account: "Blinded By The Light," "For You," and "Spirits In the Night"…

Mannerisms may be expensive and difficult to find, but it's the place to start collecting Manfred Mann's post-EMI material. The compilation was originally issued in 1976, containing a dozen A-sides and notable album tracks, and it was decent as far as it went, filling in a few holes and re-exposing some worthwhile album tracks. What will surprise many listeners (especially Americans, who may well never have heard of, much less heard, these sides) is how late Manfred Mann embraced the basic British Invasion sound, well into 1967, and also how good a psychedelic band they were.

Manfred Mann always used the long-play format to showcase its virtuosity and range of influences away from the world of pop singles. This was evident early in the band's career with albums such as The Five Faces of Manfred Mann, which was a hardcore R&B album, far removed from the pop sensibilities of singles like "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and "Sha La La." The contrast between this album and their singles output of 1968 is not quite as stark, as the LP contains pop material such as "It's So Easy Falling" and "The Vicar's Daughter." More unorthodox selections include "Cubist Town," "Harry the One-Man Band," and "Country Dancing," which showcase the eclectic side of the group.

The departure of frontman Paul Jones left Manfred Mann with a large void to fill in the summer of 1966. Not only was Jones a charismatic vocalist, he was also a writer and one of Manfred Mann's key selling points with the record buying public. The group's record company, HMV, realised this and hedged their bets by signing Jones for a new solo deal, but dropping the band from its roster. In late 1966 while Jones was enjoying success with his first solo single, "High Time," a new version of Manfred Mann emerged with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like A Woman" on Fontana. The new line up featured Mike D'Abo as vocalist (previously with A Band Of Angels) and was augmented by Klaus Voorman on bass, with Tom McGuiness switching to lead guitar. Despite the magnitude of this personnel change, the single was a top 10 hit and paved the way for this album, As Is.

The Best Of Manfred Mann's Earth Band is a compilation album released in 1993 by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. After a very successful period in the 60's with the pop group named after him and a much less successful intermezzo in Jazz with Chapter Three, the South-African born keyboardist Manfred Mann turned towards Rock music. In 1971 he formed Manfred Mann's Earth Band (MMEB). Mann's use of the Moog synthesizer was key to the sound of this band. MMEB had a very successful area during the mid 70's and early 80's but was disbanded by Mann in 1987 after being fed up with trying to produce hit records. He started a project which was based mostly on the music of Native American Indians named Manfred Mann's Plain Music and which released one album. After this Mann reformed the MMEB in 1991 and was starting again to release records with them occasionally but also to be a regular live band with extensive tours mostly in Europe until today.

The reason that The Roaring Silence became Manfred Mann's Earth Band's best-selling album may have been because of both Bruce Springsteen-penned singles, but its instrumental makeup, by way of Mann's keyboard manipulation coupled with Chris Thompson's chiseled singing, had just as much of an affect. "Blinded By the Light" and "Spirit in the Night" gave the band hits at both ends of the Top 40 spectrum, with "Blinded" going to number one while the mysteriously-sounding "Spirit in the Night" edged in at number 40 six months later. Outside of the singles, The Roaring Silence is made up of clean-cut, well-established synthesizer and guitar work, with touches of techno psychedelia that are sometimes lengthy but never messy.

This 25-song CD (originally a shorter LP called The Singles Album) is a handy collection of the band's most well-known English tracks from 1963 through 1966, plus their B-sides and some songs off of EPs that charted high in the U.K. Except for the final three songs – "Groovin'," "Can't Believe It," and "Did You Have to Do That?," none of which are that easy to find on compilations – it's all assembled in chronological order from their debut single "Why Should We Not" to 1966's "You Gave Me Somebody to Love." The notes by John Tobler are a bit superficial, and the American EMI Manfred Mann: The Definitive Collection is a little more adventurous. Also, the sound here doesn't match the presence and clarity of more recent 24-bit transfers. Nonetheless, this is a respectable compilation for the novice or the casual fan. The presence of the B-sides, including lost gems like "What Did I Do Wrong" (a killer Chess-style blues number written by Tom McGuinness) and the Goffin/King-authored "Oh No Not My Baby" (one of Paul Jones's greatest R&B-style performances), assures that one gets a truer picture of the band's output and their focus on R&B, jazz, blues, and folk, than the A-sides by themselves would provide.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Creature Music has compiled this stunning box set comprising 21 CDs, a 36-page booklet of the band's history with extensive notes for each album, a 32-page book of Manfred's own memories and anecdotes and a poster of the current band. The catalogue CDs have been remastered and repackaged in LP-style sleeves. The albums have the original UK running order and refreshed sleeves. Live In Ersingen is a brand-new live recording from 22 July this year, featuring the band's latest vocalist, Robert Hart. Leftovers is a compilation of the hit singles and rare or previously unavailable recordings.

The second album by Manfred Mann's Earth Band to be released in 1972, Glorified Magnified is as solid a heavy rock album as you're likely to find from that era, and it still holds up three decades later, mostly because these guys are smarter than the music they're playing and don't mind indulging their taste as well as their dexterity. They can romp and stomp through "Meat" or "I'm Gonna Have You All," complete with a slashing guitar solo by Mick Rogers on the latter, or throw in a synthesizer interlude by Mann on "One Way Glass" that's so quietly and carefully executed as to be worthy of a classical piece – and not skip a beat doing it.

Opening with Mike Hugg's title track, which builds on Mick Rogers' intense riffing and the killer vocals of Vicki Brown, Judith Powell, Liza Strike, and Ruby James, Messin' is pretty intense and involving from its very first bars. It's also damned topical and serious, for all of the free-wheeling rock & roll spirits and the progressive rock complexities that go into the playing. And the result is a spellbinding whole, featuring some astonishing keyboard flourishes by Manfred Mann himself (who ventures into Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson territory on "Buddah," even as the rest of the band seems to be emulating Deep Purple) and killer guitar from Mick Rogers, while Colin Pattenden and Chris Slade lay down the rhythm section like a pair of articulate pile-drivers.

The album that was Manfred Mann's commercial breakthrough was a departure from the previous albums made with the Earth Band. Though the personnel are the same and the musicianship is as mind-blowing as ever, the songs are shorter and punchier, in some cases more poppy. This is not to say that the band had sacrificed a bit of ingenuity or complexity, but the long jams are gone in favor of briefer sound portraits. Nightingales and Bombers included Manfred Mann's first cover of a Bruce Springsteen song, the album-opening "Spirits in the Night," a single that charted, and became one of the only pieces written in 10/4 time ever to do so.