Re: Deep Purple
Deep Purple MK II was a great line-up, but I don't think they hung in there long enough for people to really appreciate them like they did with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, whose line-ups both remained constant throughout most of the 70's.
Machine Head and
Made In Japan are my two favorite Deep Purple albums, but
Perfect Strangers had its moments too with "Knockin' At Your Back Door", "Perfect Strangers" and "Nobody's Home".
Lots of other great songs from them though... "Hush", "Burn", "Woman From Tokyo", "Stormbringer", "Fireball", Speed King", "Black Night", "The Mule", "Demon's Eye", "Mistreated"... I could go on and on.
Also, it's nice to hear the alternate (i.e. the Blackmore remix) versions of "Highway Star" and "Smoke On The Water" as a change of pace, as well as the studio version of "Child In Time" once in a while (which, ironically, is every bit as good as the live version).