The Best & Beyond (Double Gatefold LP)

While it's indisputable that Gino Vannelli was truly prominent within a specific 12-year period, there is also no doubt that he has been one of the most dynamic and enduring artists since his 1970 debut. The singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer is in what must be a small class of musicians who have scaled the upper reaches of Billboard's pop, rock, adult contemporary, R&B, club, jazz, and classical charts.

He hit his stride in the mid '70s with a succession of bold albums appealing to all of those audiences and more, as they integrated a multitude of styles in a way that exemplified fusion in the truest sense, and centered his lithe, soaring, and virtuosic vocals with total conviction. A hot streak of gold records in Vannelli's native Canada culminated in Brother to Brother (1978), a platinum album featuring the Canadian number one hit "I Just Wanna Stop," also a Grammy-nominated Top Ten U.S. hit. Since the '80s, Vannelli has moved steadily from one unpredictable project the next.