With entries for almost 6000 popular songs that were featured on the Top 40 charts during the fifties, sixties, and early seventies, this reference volume will whisk you back to the early days of rock and roll. Every song is listed, title and variants are given, and there are two long indexes that allow the user to find every song written by a given composer or recorded by a given artist.
Covering—the musical practice of one artist recording or performing another composer's song—has always been an attribute of popular music. In 2009, the internet database Second Hand Songs estimated that there are 40,000 songs with at least one cover version. Some of the more common variations of this "appropriationist" method of musical quotation include traditional forms such as patriotic anthems, religious hymns such as Amazing Grace, Muzak's instrumental interpretations, Christmas classics, and children's songs. Novelty and comedy collections from parodists such as Weird Al Yankovic also align in the cover category, as does the "larcenous art" of sampling, and technological variations in dance remixes and mash-ups. Film and television soundtracks and advertisers increasingly rely on versions of familiar pop tunes to assist in marketing their narratives and products. The cover phenomenon in popular culture may be viewed as a postmodern manifestation in music as artists revisit, reinterpret and re-examine a significant cross section of musical styles, periods, genres, individual records, and other artists and their catalogues of works.The cover complex, with its multiple variations, issues, contexts, and re-contextualizations comprises an important and rich popular culture text. These re-recordings represent artifacts which embody artistic, social, cultural, historical, commercial, biographical, and novel meanings. Through homage, allusion, apprenticeship, and parody, among other modes, these diverse musical quotations express, preserve, and distribute popular culture, popular music and their intersecting historical narratives. Play it Again represents the first collection of critical perspectives on the many facets of cover songs in popular music.
Recording Artists don't always enjoy success with their first release. A hit record relies on any number of factors: the right song, a memorable performance, a healthy promotional budget, great management, a spot of luck, and even some intangibles. Take choice of a name. For a single artist, duo, vocal group or band, the name can carry a lot of weight. Some recording artists changed their name to appeal to an entirely different demographic, like when country superstar Garth Brooks recorded as Chris Gaines to score on the pop charts. The Beefeaters became the Byrds—and they spelled the band name with a "y" in the wake of the meteoric success of the Beatles, whose letter "A" turned the image of a nasty bug into something intriguing. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel amassed a litany of aliases—Simon went by True Taylor, Jerry Landis, and Paul Kane; Art Garfunkel as Artie Garr; together they were Tom & Jerry before finally using their very ethnic-sounding given names. Bob Leszczak has amassed several hundred examples of musical pseudonyms in The Encyclopedia of Pop Music Aliases, 1950-2000, describing the history of these artists from their obscure origins under another name to their rise to prominence as a major musical act. Music trivia buffs, rock historians, and popular music fans will uncover nugget after nugget of eye-opening information about their favorite acts and perhaps learn a thing or two about a number of other acts. Leszczak goes the extra yard of gathering critical data directly from many of these famous recording artists through in-person interviews and archival research. Whether skipping around randomly or reading from cover-to-cover, readers will find The Encyclopedia of Pop Music Aliases, 1950-2000 a must-have for that music library.
In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.
This set covers all aspects of international hip hop as expressed through music, art, fashion, dance, and political activity. Hip hop music has gone from being a marginalized genre in the late 1980s to the predominant style of music in America, the UK, Nigeria, South Africa, and other countries around the world. Hip Hop around the World includes more than 450 entries on global hip hop culture as it includes music, art, fashion, dance, social and cultural movements, organizations, and styles of hip hop. Virtually every country is represented in the text. Most of the entries focus on music styles and notable musicians and are unique in that they discuss the sound of various hip hop styles and musical artists' lyrical content, vocal delivery, vocal ranges, and more. Many additional entries deal with dance styles, such as breakdancing or b-boying/b-girling, popping/locking, clowning, and krumping, and cultural movements, such as black nationalism, Nation of Islam, Five Percent Nation, and Universal Zulu Nation. Country entries take into account politics, history, language, authenticity, and personal and community identification. Special care is taken to draw relationships between people and entities such as mentor-apprentice, producer-musician, and more.
TheInternational Who's Who in Popular Music 2002offers comprehensive biographical information covering the leading names on all aspects of popular music. It brings together the prominent names in pop music as well as the many emerging personalities in the industry, providing full biographical details on pop, rock, folk, jazz, dance, world and country artists. Over 5,000 biographical entries include major career details, concerts, recordings and compositions, honors and contact addresses. Wherever possible, information is obtained directly from the entrants to ensure accuracy and reliability. Appendices include details of record companies, management companies, agents and promoters. The reference also details publishers, festivals and events and other organizations involved with music.
From its infancy, television networks and studios explore others avenues to increase their revenues. Conveniently enough, several film studios and production companies—MGM, MTM, Columbia/Screen Gems, Talent Associates, Warner Brothers—had their own record label divisions. The obvious benefit was cross promotion: a television series could be plugged on the record and the record could be promoted on the TV show. Though few and far between, several television performers went on to become major recording stars. Ricky Nelson started as a child actor on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet before dominating rock and pop charts. Johnny Crawford of The Rifleman, Walter Brennan of The Real McCoys, and even Bruce Willis of Moonlighting all scored Top Ten hit singles. But these were just the standouts from the hundreds of TV actors who recorded songs, and the stories behind their records are simply fascinating. In From Small Screen to Vinyl: A Guide to TV Stars Who Made Records 1950-2000, author Bob Leszczak offers a look at hundreds of stars who performed double duty: as a television performer as well as a recording artist. He looks not only at the show and the performer but the behind-the-scenes dramas that unfolded as each attempted to tackle the two different mediums. Through his interviews with many of these multitaskers, the author has uncovered new, and mostly never before known facts about those who sought to conquer the world of vinyl. As Leszczak stresses, most eagerly embraced the opportunity to record, while others saw it as a necessary evil—the result of contractual obligations or industry pressures. Entries are listed alphabetically from Nick Adams (of The Rebel) to Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (of 77 Sunset Strip). Also included are over 80 photos of these rare releases taken from the author’s private collection. For a new look at your old favorites, From Small Screen to Vinyl, will let you see that just because one is a TV star does not mean that he or she does not have the ability to expand beyond their acting prowess. Baby boomers, fans of classic hits radio, and devotees of classic TV programs will find From Small Screen to Vinyl a treasure trove of TV and record trivia—and no TV or music library can be considered complete without it.
