Favorite books

Joel Whitburn, Top Pop Singles 1955-1996, Record Research, 1997

What a wealth of information! It would be impossible to do a "retro" show without at least one of Joel Whitburn's chart books, and I recommend the big kahuna - this one lists every single that's ever hit the Billboard Hot 100. Excellent factual data about the artists, and I compiled most of my CFTP birthday list from this book.

Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual 1955-1994, Record Research, 1995

See above.

Gary Graff, MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink, 1996

If I had to choose only one of the "record guides", it would be one of the MusicHound series, which seems to tower over all others in terms of quality of reviews, correctness of information, and utility of cross-references. I also highly recommend the MusicHound R&B book, the MusicHound Lounge book, and the VideoHound movie guide, all of which are readily available and are not listed here.

M.C. Strong, The Great Rock Discography, Third Edition, Canongate Books, 1996

Typos galore, but the best overall rock discography anywhere.

Paul Gambaccini, Tim Rice, Jonathan Rice, British Hit Singles, 8th Edition, Guinness, 1991

British equivalent of the Whitburn books, and the best overall UK chart reference, but not nearly as fact-packed as Whitburn's US books.

Paul Gambaccini, Tim Rice, Jonathan Rice, British Hit Albums, 5th Edition, Guinness, 1992

See above.

Tony Jasper, The Top Twenty Book 1955-1993, 6th Edition, Blandford, 1994

Useful only for hard-core UK chart-heads. Gives the actual top 20 on the British charts for every week from 1955 to 1993. The index is frequently wrong, and the charts are difficult to read.

Tim Neely, Price Guide to 45 RPM Records, Goldmine/Krause Publications, 1996

Excellent reference for 45s. I wish they included more crappy pop singles.

Tim Neely, Price Guide To Alternative Records, Goldmine/Krause, 1996

See above.

Thomas Ryan, American Hit Radio, Prima, 1996

Nice essays about specific songs throughout the history of top 40 radio. He's also not afraid to dump on certain bad records, which is just fine by me.

Dafydd Rees and Luke Crampton, Rock Movers And Shakers, Billboard, 1991

Superb reference for career retrospectives. The most complete reference out there for those artists fortunate enough to be included.

Ira Robbins, The Trouser Press Record Guide, 4th Edition, Collier, 1991

Terrific modern rock album guide. Good reviews, thorough research. There's a '90s guide out there from Trouser Press as well.

Rob Durkee, American Top 40: The Countdown Of The Century, Schirmer, 1999

The best reference in existence about AT40. Plus, I'm in the acknowledgements right before Debbie Gibson!

Dave Marsh and John Swenson, The Rolling Stone Record Guide, Random House/Rolling Stone, 1979

Useful for its late '70s pop obscurities.

Dave Marsh and John Swenson, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, Random House/Rolling Stone, 1983

Same as above.

Anthony DeCurtis, James Henke, and Holly George-Warren, The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Straight Arrow, 1992

Less useful than earlier volumes, because they deleted the out-of-print albums. What fun is that?

Dave Marsh, The Heart Of Rock And Soul, Plume, 1989

The 1001 greatest singles ever made, or so he claims. Pompous but well-written editorials.

Mark Cunningham, Good Vibrations, Sanctuary, 1998

It's a history of record production, and a terrific look at top 40 from the producer's chair. Extremely well-researched, with wonderful details for those who care about them.

Bert Muirhead, The Record Producers File, Landford, 1984

It's a directory of rock album producers from 1962-1984. Great concept, in a very small book. Lists the producers and what they produced, with no commentary. I wish there were a more recent version of this.

Eric Olsen, Paul Verna, and Carlo Wolff, The Encyclopedia Of Record Producers, Billboard, 1999

Bios of lots of influential producers, plus selected discographies. Wonderful stuff.

Pat Downey, Top 40 Music on Compact Disc 1955-1996, Pat Downey Enterprises

Where to find what. Under each song that's ever hit the top 40, the book lists what CDs it's appeared on, plus which version of the song it is (45/LP/extended/etc.) Very nice piece of work, and it's mind-boggling how long this must have taken to compile.

Kerry Doole and Chris Twomey, Crowded House - Private Universe, Omnibus, 1996

Nice bio of Crowded House, one of my favorite bands.

There are more books floating around in my basement, but this hits the high points.