Essential

With a body of work spanning nearly seven decades, England's Deep Purple are bona fide classic rock royalty. Along with Cream, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, they defined hard rock and early heavy metal. Though their lineup has constantly evolved, Deep Purple effectively made music a career for guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, bassist Roger Glover, vocalists Ian Gillan and David Coverdale, and organist/composer Jon Lord. Shortly before his death in 2012, Lord attributed Deep Purple's success in selling more than 100 million albums to "musical restlessness."

Given their extended history as a recording act, a single disc compilation can only give somewhat of a career overview of the influential rock band. Nevertheless, this collection includes classic DP songs like "Hush", "Speed King", "Fireball" and "Smoke on the Water", making this collection a well-priced insight into the band's essential output.