Bobby Vee got his break when Buddy Holly's plane crashed, killing all aboard. Vee's amateur combo answered a call for volunteers to carry on the ill-fated Winter Dance Party. It was a serendipitous beginning to one of the most successful careers in 60s music. Vee scored a #1 hit with the classic Take Good Care of My Baby and followed it with #2 Run to Him ensuring his place in history as one of the most consistent hit makers of his generation. His star dimmed when British groups took over, but bounced back with one of his biggest hits, "Come Back When You Grow Up". He racked up racked up 38 Top 100 hits. This looks at all of his recordings. Some of his best music came long after his name vanished from the music charts. He encountered Bob Dylan, worked with Leon Russell, achieved success with Holly's Crickets, and met the Beatles. Misfortune kept him from songs that became top hits for others.

"Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? -- Volume 1" chronicles the lives of musical soloists and band members whose songs hit the top of the music charts in the late 1950s and in the '60s. Through conversations with them, as well as producers, managers and family members, we share fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses into the lives of these creative, talented people."Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? -- Volume 1" includes authenticated, authorized biographical chapters on seven musical groups and solo performers: the Association (whose songs include three gold records -- "Cherish," "Windy" and "Never My Love"); Herman's Hermits (whose extensive string of hits includes three gold records -- "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter," "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" and "There's a Kind of Hush"); the Kingston Trio (whose enormous popularity reflected in seven gold albums triggered the folk music craze of the early '60s, and whose hits included million-selling "Tom Dooley," along with "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Greenback Dollar"); Chris Montez (whose hit tunes included "Let's Dance," "Call Me" and "The More I See You"); the Spiral Starecase (who recorded "She's Ready," "No One For Me To Turn To" and the smash hit "More Today Than Yesterday"); Bobby Vee (whose 30 hit records included "Take Good Care of My Baby," "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" and the million-selling "Come Back When You Grow Up"); and the Zombies (whose hits included "She's Not There," "Tell Her No" and the gold record "Time of the Season").

"A great romp that is almost more of a history of modern rock than it is a look at the life of Bobby Keys. That also makes it an enjoyable and fascinating read for anyone who loves classic rock, as well as for folks who grew up on the genre." —Fortune Born in Slaton, Texas, Bobby Keys has lived the kind of life that qualifies as a rock 'n' roll folktale. In his early teens, Keys bribed his way into Buddy Holly's garage band rehearsals. He took up the saxophone because it was the only instrument left unclaimed in the school band, and he convinced his grandfather to sign his guardianship over to Crickets drummer J.I. Allison so that he could go on tour as a teenager. Keys spent years on the road during the early days of rock ‘n' roll with hitmakers like Bobby Vee and the various acts on Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars Tour, followed by decades as top touring and session sax man for the likes of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, George Harrison, John Lennon, and onto his gig with The Rolling Stone from 1970 onward. Every Night's a Saturday Night finds Keys setting down the many tales of an over–the–top rock ‘n' roll life in his own inimitable voice. Augmented by exclusive contributions with famous friends like Keith Richards, Joe Crocker, and Jim Keltner, Every Night's a Saturday Night paints a unique picture of the coming–of–age of rock 'n' roll.

In the vein of the classic Johnny Cash: The Life, this groundbreaking work explores the wild life and extraordinary musical career of “the definitive country singer of the last half century” (New York Times), who influenced, among others, Bob Dylan, Buck Owens, Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks. In a masterful biography laden with new revelations, veteran country music journalist/historian Rich Kienzle offers a definitive, full-bodied portrait of legendary country singer George Jones and the music that remains his legacy. Kienzle meticulously sifted through archival material, government records, recollections by colleagues and admirers, interviewing many involved in Jones’s life and career. The result: an evocative portrait of this enormously gifted, tragically tormented icon called “the Keith Richards of country.” Kienzle chronicles Jones’s impoverished East Texas childhood as the youngest son of a deeply religious mother and alcoholic, often-abusive father. He examines his three troubled marriages including his union with superstar Tammy Wynette and looks unsparingly at Jones’s demons. Alcohol and later cocaine nearly killed him until fourth wife Nancy helped him learn to love himself. Kienzle also details Jones’s remarkable musical journey from singing in violent Texas honky tonks to Grand Ole Opry star, hitmaker and master vocalist whose raw, emotionally powerful delivery remains the Gold Standard for country singers. The George Jones of this heartfelt biography lived hard before finding contentment until he died at eighty-one—a story filled with whiskey, women and drugs but always the saving grace of music. Illustrated with eight pages of photos.

Luck was with Bobby Goldsboro when Roy Orbison came through the area on tour. Orbison took on Goldsboro's band and Bobby stuck with him for the next three years. Bobby went solo and soon scored a modest hit with "Molly," a song that he despised. A short while later, however, he scored a top ten song with his own "See the Funny Little Clown." Other hits followed but his superb "Broomstick Cowboy" was mistakenly seen by many radio stations as a Vietnam War protest songs and they refused to play it. Going against the grain, a Detroit station did air it and it became #1 in that area. His "Honey" was the top record for 1968 reaching #1 on every chart. "Watching Scotty Grow" was also a big hit. The early 70s saw the excellent "Summer (The First Time)" make waves. England voted it the best summer song ever. Bobby hosted a top-rated TV variety program, The Bobby Goldsboro Show, wrote and produced an Easter special for Disney and took up oil painting, of which his art is highly regarded.

If you didn’t experience rock and roll in Minnesota in the 1960s, this book will make you wish you had. This behind-the-scenes, up-close-and-personal account relates how a handful of Minnesota rock bands erupted out of a small Midwest market and made it big. It was a brief, heady moment for the musicians who found themselves on a national stage, enjoying a level of success most bands only dream of. In Everybody’s Heard about the Bird, Rick Shefchik writes of that time in vivid detail. Interviews with many of the key musicians, combined with extensive research and a phenomenal cache of rare photographs, reveal how this monumental era of Minnesota rock music evolved. The chronicle begins with musicians from the 1950s and early 1960s, including Augie Garcia, Bobby Vee, the Fendermen, and Mike Waggoner and the Bops. Shefchik looks at how a local recording studio and record label, along with Minnesota radio stations, helped make their achievements possible and prepared the way for later bands to break out nationally. Shefchik delves deeply into the Trashmen’s emblematic rise to fame. A Minneapolis band that recorded a fluke novelty hit called “Surfin’ Bird” at Kay Bank Studios, the Trashmen signed with Soma Records, topped the local charts in late 1963, and were poised to top the national charts in early 1964. Hundreds of Minnesota bands took inspiration from the Trashmen’s success, as teen dances with live bands flourished in clubs, ballrooms, gyms, and halls across the Upper Midwest. Here are the stories of bands like the Gestures, the Castaways, and the Underbeats, and the triumphs—and tragedies—of the most prominent Minnesota-spawned bands of the late 1960s, including Gypsy, Crow, and the Litter. For the baby boomers who remember it and everyone else who has felt its influence, the 1960s rock-and-roll scene in Minnesota was an extraordinary period both in musical history and popular culture, and now it’s captured fully in print for the first time. Everybody’s Heard about the Bird celebrates how these bands found their singular sound and played for their elated audiences from the golden era to today.

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.