The music lovers on your holiday gift list are in luck this year. There is a fresh new crop of box sets all suitable for giving (or keeping for yourself, if you so choose). Since they already come boxed, just add wrapping paper.

2005 was the 40th anniversary of The Byrds’ Columbia Records debut album, but it is this year in which the four CD/one DVD box set There Is a Season (Columbia/Legacy) has been released. Better late than never, right? Especially considering that this is the second multi-disc Byrds box set released since 1990. An Americanized Beatles with a strong connection to Bob Dylan, individually and collectively, The Byrds were among the most influential musical outfits of the 1960s. The 99 (count ’em) tracks, including five unissued cuts, are proof enough, with the band’s trademark jangly guitars and harmonies as well as interpretive and songwriting skills ringing out loud and clear.

Dolly Parton turned 60 at the beginning of 2006, and that’s an anniversary to celebrate. (On her 2005 Those Were the Days album, Parton covered “Turn! Turn! Turn!” The song can also be found on The Byrds’ There Is a Season box set.) The recordings in The Acoustic Collection: 1999-2002 (Sugar Hill), a three CD/one DVD box set, predate the Those Were the Days disc, but they do offer hints to its arrival. Backed up by some of the best bluegrass musicians around, Parton returned to her roots in 1999 on the aptly named The Grass Is Blue, which featured four originals and covers of tunes by Lester Flatt, Hazel Dickens, the Louvin Brothers and others. Parton compositions such as “My Blue Tears” dominate 2001’s Little Sparrow, but a cover of Collective Soul’s “Shine” show that Parton was keeping her ears open to new sounds. As you might have guessed, heaven and hell, good and bad behavior were on Dolly’s mind on Halos & Horns from 2002, which can be witnessed through Parton songs such as “Sugar Hill,” “Hello God” and “These Old Bones,” as well as her renditions of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” The bonus DVD includes five new song mixes, two selections from the Just Because I’m a Woman Parton tribute album, one live performance and three music videos.

Parton covered John Lennon’s “Imagine” on Those Were the Days. George Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” would also have been an appropriate selection. Living in the Material World (Apple/Capitol), Harrison’s 1973 album on which “Give Me Love” appeared, has been reissued in a double-disc CD/DVD set. With a few years between the dissolution of the Beatles and the wildly successful All Things Must Pass set, Harrison’s mood shifted a bit into darkness (“Sue Me, Sue You Blues” and “The Light That Has Lighted the World,” for example), although his faith was obviously a source of great comfort to him, as many of these songs indicate. Two bonus tracks, “Deep Blue” and “Miss O’Dell,” round out the CD, with the DVD containing a live performance and a few “music videos.”

We all know what the first thing is that most people think of when it comes to Dolly Parton, don’t we? But what about Tori Amos? What’s the first thing you think of? Her red hair? Her “funny lip shape”? Chances are good it’s her piano, her Bösendorfer. Appropriately, A Piano: The Collection (Rhino), the five-disc Tori Amos career-retrospective box set, comes packaged in what looks like a section of piano keys. A longtime champion of women’s and queer causes, the liner notes by Lorraine Ali make mention of Amos’ early career turn as an entertainer in a Washington, D.C., gay bar. The set also includes Amos’ nods to the community, such as “Blood Roses” and “Hey Jupiter,” as well as the dance remix of “Professional Widow.” In addition to the “Little Earthquakes extended” first disc, there is a cornucopia of previously unreleased material, remixes, alternate tracks and live versions from Amos’ expansive songbook.

Nineteen singles by The Clash, from 1977’s “White Riot” through 1985’s “This Is England,” and all related B-sides, 12” versions and more, have been compiled for the massive and impressive The Singles (Epic/Legacy) box set. The 19 singles come dressed in their own individual “replica sleeves,” and the whole package was done with the blessing of Mick Jones and Paul Simonon.

Swaddled in a faux leather corset, the three CD/one DVD A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box (Rhino) set will earn gift-givers big points with the kohl eyeliner and black nail polish crowd. Focused mainly on the high point of goth (say, 1981-1987), the selection of artists represented includes The Sisters of Mercy, Tones on Tail, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Dali’s Car, Ghost Dance, The Bolshoi, Christian Death, Miranda Sex Garden, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Lords of the New Church and many others.

Ain’t it funky now? If you think so, then be sure to request What It Is!: Funky Soul and Rare Grooves (Rhino) from that special someone. Subtitled “From the vaults of Atlantic, Atco & Warner Bros. Records,” this funk-fortified four-disc set spans a 10-year period, from 1967 to 1977, when some fine funk found its way onto vinyl and the airwaves, and others were simply stashed away and forgotten until now.