New on DVD

Arguably too much of a good thing for casual pop fans and mere nostalgists, this lavish box salutes four '60s British pop fixtures with the same respect and thoroughness the producers brought to previous acclaimed series devoted to vintage Motown, folk blues, and the storied jazz legends of their "Jazz Icons" project. The approach is welcome and mostly satisfying in the case of Dusty Springfield, whose soulful alto blurred nationality to make her eventual adventures in Memphis soul both natural and convincing, with evident care in the supplemental interviews. Even better is the disc on the Small Faces, documenting the years when they were led by singer and guitarist Steve Marriott. Vintage and recent interviews (including the last filmed session with bassist Ronnie Lane) and a deeper archive of live performance footage traces their evolution from second-wave pop to blues rave-ups and mod-friendly psychedelia.

Discs featuring Herman's Hermits and Gerry & the Pacemakers maintain the same high standards in terms of historical depth and archival material. They can't help but suffer by comparison in direct proportion to the modesty of their musical legacy. Both groups eclipsed the Small Faces on U.S. charts (especially Herman's Hermits, which in the mid-'60s were nipping at the Beatles' heels in terms of actual sales), but proved less influential. A fifth disc adds an hour of additional performances from Dusty Springfield and Herman's Hermits, plus additional interview footage on all four featured acts.

This two-disc set, originally released as an import in 2006, quickly reveals the obstacles that likely delayed its stateside appearance. The English quartet's sinewy, no-frills blues rock may have made them staples for classic rock radio, but a relative scarcity of strong film and video material and a short list of familiar tracks yield an awkward and often redundant couch concert. The initial set of live performances, taped for German television, of "Mr. Big," "Fire and Water" and their lustful signature hit "All Right Now," demonstrate the in-the-pocket instrumental punch of lead guitarist Paul Kossoff, bassist Andy Fraser and drummer Simon Kirke, as well as vocalist Paul Rodgers' bruised howl.

If only the package ventured a bit further from that base. A second British TV set repeats two of the first three tracks, while "All Right Now" pops up again in a third chapter devoted to their original music videos. A second disc from their 1970 appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival reproduces a full set, but provides audio on only three of its 10 tracks, two of them being "Mr. Big" and (you guessed it) "All Right Now." Special features add brief interview snippets and, on the second disc, alternate camera coverage and recent interviews with survivors Rodgers, Kirke and Fraser, and Simon Kossoff, brother to the guitarist, who died in 1976 from drug-related heart problems.

This two-disc set takes its title from the Texas trio's most recent tour, but on DVD the net effect is closer to one-and-a-half down, and tied more to the past than their present despite that connection. The first disc serves up a generous 1980 set driven by stripped-down, tongue-in-cheek blues rock tuned to a steady rumble through early staples such as "Tush" and "La Grange," then customized with a self-mythologizing humor ("Cheap Sunglasses," anybody?) they'd soon kick into overdrive (and often overkill) with their MTV era crossover. At this juncture, though, lead singer and guitarist Billy Gibbons and his front-line partner, bassist/vocalist Dusty Hill, confined the visual shtick to untrimmed beards and some loosely synchronized footwork, letting the focus stay on their sturdy playing. The video transfer betrays the lower resolution of its original source, but the overall camera work and audio are fine.

Disc 2, however, updates the band to no advantage with a comparatively slapdash array of recent live performances and documentary clips. If the newer material was intended to confirm that ZZ Top is still in the game, it feels more like a holding action that true fans will find superfluous, if not a crass attempt to wring a few more pfennigs from the customer. To paraphrase one of their loopiest hits, featured on both discs, the 2008 material is closer to bad than nationwide.

Captured on the 1977 European tour that yielded one of rock's greatest live albums, "Waiting for Columbus," this concert taped in Essen, Germany, confirms Little Feat's abundant talent while illustrating the constraints in translating rock to the boob tube in the era before MTV. Fans of the Southern Californian band will recognize its most celebrated lineup, the sextet fronted by canny, charismatic singer, songwriter and guitarist Lowell George. Feat 2.0 had expanded the original foundations of its founding quartet with a swampy, second-line pulse spliced from New Orleans funk onto Chicago blues, an equation that invited their typecasting as a "Southern rock" band despite their Los Angeles origins.

By the time of this tour, however, George was retreating from his role as Feat"s auteur, allowing other members to dial up jazz and even classical elements in their often dazzling instrumental mix. That sophistication is undercut here by uneven camera work and lighting, and the audio mixes, while typical of that era, can't approach the celebrated (and still state of the art) standard achieved on "Columbus." Less obviously, the program demonstrates from hindsight how '60s and early '70s stars would be marked for extinction in the MTV age through their focus on musical craft and indifference to fashion. Granted they could (and still can) play rings around the hair bands and synth poseurs yet to come, but they weren't born for video.