For the Beatles, 1967 marks a signal crossroads that would both transform the group’s career and place them on a trajectory towards their eventual disbandment. It was a year in which they exploded prevailing rock music demographics through the global onslaught and international success of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band beginning in June 1967. Yet it was also a period that saw them in a precarious state of flux throughout the summer and fall months, as the band attempted to recapture...

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2008The Beatles: Image and the Media charts the transformation of the Beatles from teen idols to leaders of the youth movement and powerful cultural agents. Drawing upon American mainstream print media, broadcasts, albums, films, and videos, the study covers the band’s career in the United States. Michael R. Frontani explores how the Beatles’s media image evolved and how this transformation related to cultural...

The Beatles: Image and the Media charts the transformation of the Beatles from teen idols to leaders of the youth movement and powerful cultural agents. Drawing upon American mainstream print media, broadcasts, albums, films, and videos, the study covers the band's career in the United States. Michael R. Frontani explores how the Beatles' media image evolved and how this transformation related to cultural and historical events.Upon their arrival in the U.S., the Beatles wo...

From the acclaimed biographer who brought you the rock biography of Bruce Springsteen comes the definitive biography of musician Paul McCartney—from his groundbreaking years with the Beatles to Wings to his work as a solo artist and activist.More than a rock star, more than a celebrity,Paul McCartney is a cultural touchstone who helped transform popular music as one half of the legendary Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo. In this definitive biography, Peter Ames Car...

The first narrative biography of the Bee Gees, the phenomenally popular vocal group that has sold more than 200 million records worldwide -- sales in the company of the Beatles and Michael Jackson. The Bee Gees is the epic family saga of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, and it's riddled with astonishing highs—especially as they became the definitive band of the disco era, fueled by Saturday Night Fever and crashing lows, including the tragic drug-fueled downfall o...

A revelatory account of the life of beloved American music icon, Paul Simon, by the New York Times –bestselling rock biographer, the author of Bruce .To have been alive during the last sixty years is to have lived with the music of Paul Simon. The boy from Queens scored his first hit record in 1957, just months after Elvis Presley ignited the rock era. As the songwriting half of...

Which Song is the Best and Why? Read it and see!Organized by rank, from 1 to 100, this illustrated celebration of the best songs by the boys who revolutionized rock-and-roll includes expert commentary, historical context, interview material, and lots of great sidebars (including "best" lists from some of today's pop music powerhouses.) Like all "best of" lists, the book's opinionated stance generates animated discussion.Here, There, and Everywhere is profusely illustrated wit...

Praised as "suave, soulful, ebullient" (Tom Waits) and "a meticulous researcher, a graceful writer, and a committed contrarian" (New York Times Book Review), Elijah Wald is one of the leading popular music critics of his generation. In The Blues, Wald surveys a genre at the heart of American culture. It is not an easy thing to pin down. As Howlin' Wolf once described it, "When you ain't got no money and can't pay your house rent and can't buy you no food, you've damn sure...

As writer, actor, and activist, his words and music shaped a generation. John Lennon: In His Own Words is a fitting tribute to a man who changed the world with his music and his message.John Lennon inspired millions during his too-brief lifetime. First with the Beatles, then as a solo artist, philosopher, and peace activist, he spoke for a generation that believed they could change the world, and did. Now his words are preserved in a handsome hardcover volume that will tou...

"Two Solitudes" is excerpted from Have Note Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995, available as a print or ebook. Published in autumn 2001, Have Not Been the Same became the first book to comprehensively document the rise of Canadian underground rock between the years 1985 and 1995. It was a tumultuous decade that saw the arrival of Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip, SarahMcLachlan, Sloan, Barenaked Ladies, Daniel Lanois, and many others who made an indelible mark not only on Canad...

Music breeds duality. We enjoy the music we love-listening to it, talking about it, reading about it. But it's just as fun to passionately revel in mocking the music we hate. Fortunately, musicians make this two-lane path very easy to follow. Half the time they're creating timeless works of art that speak to the soul; the other half, they're recording ridiculous concept albums about robots.I Love Rock 'n' Roll (Except When I Hate It) covers both sides: It celebrates the mu...

Can a song change a nation?In 1964, Marvin Gaye, record producer William “Mickey” Stevenson, and Motown songwriter Ivy Jo Hunter wrote “Dancing in the Street.” The song was recorded at Motown’s Hitsville USA Studio by Martha and the Vandellas, with lead singer Martha Reeves arranging her own vocals. Released on July 31, the song was supposed to be an upbeat dance recording—a precursor to disco, and a song about the joyousness of dance. But events overtook it, and t...