Songwriters: A Biographical Dictionary with Discographies
Eubie Blake, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter… This is a comprehensive guide to 1,054 composers and lyricists (in English) from all the popular genres, including Tin Pan Alley, rhythm & blues, country & western, jazz, rap, and film and show tunes. Each artist's entry includes birth name (if different), date and place of birth, principal musical genre, main instruments played (if any), a short biography, a list of compositions, a list of long playing albums or CDs (with year...
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Eubie Blake, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter This is a comprehensive guide to 1,054 composers and lyricists (in English) from all the popular genres, including Tin Pan Alley, rhythm & blues, country & western, jazz, rap, and film and show tunes. Each artist's entry includes birth name (if different), date and place of birth, principal musical genre, main instruments played (if any), a short biography, a list of compositions, a list of long playing albums or CDs (with year of release, record label and peak chart position) and any noteworthy compilation albums. Artists are cross-referenced with musical group and co-writers, when applicable, and the final section of most entries is an alphabetical list of every known chart version of any song written by that particular artist since 1890 (when Billboard first compiled a pop chart). Library Journal This large volume claims to be "the first comprehensive guide to English-language composers and lyricists" of popular songs of the 19th and 20th centuries. Harrison, a former reporter for Billboard, compiles over 1000 entries with biographical information, discographies, and peak chart positions (both British and American). While covering a wide range of popular song (excluding instrumental music), including folk, country, R&B, gospel, blues, and jazz, he is strongest in the rock and popular music fields. The biographical information tends to be quite brief, with most entries consisting primarily of discographical information. Although there is some overlap with the second edition of the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (LJ 12/95), as would be expected, there are many entries here for songwriters not found in that set. Consequently, this would be a welcome addition to most music reference collections.--Michael Colby, Univ. of California, Davis
\ Library JournalThis large volume claims to be "the first comprehensive guide to English-language composers and lyricists" of popular songs of the 19th and 20th centuries. Harrison, a former reporter for Billboard, compiles over 1000 entries with biographical information, discographies, and peak chart positions (both British and American). While covering a wide range of popular song (excluding instrumental music), including folk, country, R&B, gospel, blues, and jazz, he is strongest in the rock and popular music fields. The biographical information tends to be quite brief, with most entries consisting primarily of discographical information. Although there is some overlap with the second edition of the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (LJ 12/95), as would be expected, there are many entries here for songwriters not found in that set. Consequently, this would be a welcome addition to most music reference collections.--Michael Colby, Univ. of California, Davis\ \ \ \ \ BooknewsCovers 1,000-plus popular songwriters, from 19th-century composers such as Stephen Foster and Gilbert & Sullivan to contemporary artists. The focus, with few exceptions, is on English speaking composers. The entries sometimes provide a brief biographical sketch, sometimes only a few words as to the subject's musical or lyrical style; discographical information is also provided, albeit not in a particularly usefully organized manner. In any work of this type, choices of inclusion and emphasis are of course subjective; in this case, the author is British, and chooses to include some relatively obscure British pop songwriters to the exclusion of significant American songwriters, particularly those of recent years (e.g. Ani DiFranco). Also, the presence of some factual errors suggests inadequate fact-checking and/or proofreading. One hopes that future editions address these shortcomings, as this is a potentially useful reference for students of contemporary popular music. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.\ \
