Fake books—anthologies of songs notated in a musical shorthand—have been used by countless pop and jazz musicians in both professional and amateur settings for more than half a century. The Story of Fake Books: Bootlegging Songs to Musicians traces the entertaining and previously unknown account of the origins of pop song fake books, which evolved through the bootlegging of a now obscure musical subscription service, the Tune-Dex. The book follows the history of fake books through their increased popularity among musicians to their prosecution by the government and the music industry, resulting in America's first full-blown federal trial for criminal copyright infringement. Through accounts given by jazz musicians Steve Swallow and Pat Metheny, The Story of Fake Books also reveals the definitive history of the most popular fake book, one that has acquired a legendary status among jazz musicians: an anthology of jazz tunes called The Real Book. Drawing from information in FBI files, entertainment trade papers, and federal court records, author Barry Kernfeld presents pioneering research, which brings together aspects of pop music history and copyright law to disclose this predecessor of current-day battles over pop song piracy.

Chicago private eye Mal Foley was a lawyer once. Then he disobeyed a court order requiring him to reveal a client's role in a shootout that left three people dead, one of them a cop, and his law license was revoked. Now years removed from that fateful day, Mal is filing a petition to get his license reinstated. It quickly becomes a problem, however, as Mal is expected to "express remorse for his misconduct" in order to satisfy the court, something he steadfastly refuses to do. In fact, he would withdraw the petition -- if people would only stop trying to frighten him into doing just that. Anonymous notes turn into death threats, then into savage beatings, and finally into murder. It seems no one wants Mal's petition to lead to a hearing, where testimony might reveal what really led to the shooting so many years ago. The person with the most to lose should the truth come out seems to be Jimmy Coletta, a second cop shot that night. Coletta survived, but has spent his life since in a wheelchair. Whatever part he played in the shootout, he seems a good man now, spending his life helping minority kids who have disabilities. Mal doesn't want to bring Jimmy down, but soon an innocent man's life depends on Mal pressing ahead with his petition, no matter who gets destroyed in the process. Set in Chicago, No Show of Remorse is a startling novel about crime, corruption, and their devastating consequences.

Indexes 64 collections encompassing a total of over 13,500 songs by hundreds of different composers. Indexing is by title and composer, with complete bibliographic descriptions of the fakebooks included.