VA – Virgin Records: 40 Years of Disruptions (2013)

The Virgin label was largely the brainchild of one young businessman named Richard Branson. The London-born Branson began his career selling records by mail order and later opening a shop on Oxford Street. The Virgin label was blessed with early success thanks to a willingness to sign acts that major U.K. labels were keen to dismiss. This netted them a smash hit with their very first release, Mike Oldfield’s captivating instrumental “Tubular Bells,” as well as a place in cultural history as the label who’d ultimately made the strongest commitment to punk band The Sex Pistols, after EMI and A&M each dropped the band. (It was Virgin who’d pressed the commercial version of their No. 2 hit “God Save The Queen” as well as their sole studio album, Never Mind The Bollocks.)

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The decades to come found Virgin succeeding with all sorts of genres: MTV-ready pop/rock (Culture Club, The Human League, The Spice Girls), groundbreaking alt-rock and New Wave (Simple Minds, XTC), multi-generational rock (Genesis and its two most famous frontmen, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins; The Rolling Stones, for a time) hip-hop and dance (Soul II Soul, Neneh Cherry, Daft Punk, Massive Attack) and more, all the way up to the present (recent critical and commercial hits include tracks by Swedish House Mafia, Emili Sandé and CHVRCHES).

Branson would ultimately sell Virgin to EMI in 1992 to keep other parts of his business empire afloat; the iconoclastic entrepreneur found success in everything from air travel to publishing to music festivals (Europe’s V Festival) to record stores (the late Virgin Megastores) to mobile phones to…well, even more interesting stuff (Branson plans to be aboard the inaugural Virgin Galactic flight – a commercial space trip – this year.) The label continues to exist, now of course under the Universal Music Group family.

Virgin Records: 40 Years of Disruptions plans to honor the label’s indomitable spirit across two discs, along with a bonus EP of current Virgin artists covering some classic tracks, including cuts by John Lennon, Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack and others.

Disc 1

1. Tubular Bells – Mike Oldfield
2. God Save The Queen – The Sex Pistols
3. In the Air Tonight – Phil Collins
4. Don’t You Want Me – The Human League
5. Senses Working Overtime – XTC
6. Buffalo Gals – Malcolm McLaren
7. Temptation – Heaven 17
8. Red Red Wine – UB40
9. Do You Really Want to Hurt Me – Culture Club
10. Mama – Genesis
11. Together in Electric Dreams – Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder
12. Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds
13. I Put a Spell on You – Bryan Ferry
14. China in Your Hand – T’Pau
15. Good Life – Inner City
16. Buffalo Stance – Neneh Cherry
17. Back to Life (However Do You Want Me) – Soul II Soul feat. Caron Wheeler
18. Unfinished Sympathy – Massive Attack
19. Sadeness (Part 1) – Enigma

Disc 2

1. I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) – Meat Loaf
2. Baby Come Back – Pato Banton feat. Ali & Robin Campbell of UB40
3. Boombastic – Shaggy
4. Walking Wounded – Everything But the Girl
5. Wannabe – Spice Girls
6. Block Rockin’ Beats – The Chemical Brothers
7. Around the World – Daft Punk
8. Sexy Boy – Air
9. Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve
10. Black Horse and the Cherry Tree – KT Tunstall
11. Fly Away – Lenny Kravitz
12. Naive – The Kooks
13. Ghosts – Laura Marling
14. Ghosts ‘N’ Stuff – Deadmau5 feat. Rob Swire
15. Titanium – David Guetta feat. Sia
16. Read All About It – Professor Green feat. Emili Sandé
17. Don’t You Worry Child – Swedish House Mafia feat. John Martin
18. Next to Me – Emeli Sandé
19. Pompeii – Bastille
20. La La La – Naughty Boy feat. Sam Smith
21. Gun – CHVRCHES

Disc 3

1. (I Just) Died in Your Arms – Bastille
2. Sledgehammer – KT Tunstall
3. Jealous Guy – Corinne Bailey Rae
4. Teardrop – The Kooks
5. We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off – Ella Eyre
6. Only You – Josh Record