Japanese gems, maligned boybands and 'the Dan': the best old music Guardian writers discovered this year

In a good year for rummaging through back catalogues, our writers have been delighted by everything from a A1's embrace of soft rock to the Marvelettes' ageless glee Marcia Griffith's debut solo album - released between her UK hits as one half of Bob and Marcia and her membership of Bob Marley's backing vocalists the I-Threes - is the kind of record you can't believe you haven't already heard, or at least heard of: surely people should have been banging on for years about something this good? Gr...