The All Music Book of Hit Singles - Softcover

McAleer, Dave

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0879303301 ISBN 13: 9780879303303

Publisher: Backbeat Books, 1994

Synopsis

Unlike other charts books, The All Music Book of Hit Singles gives both U.S. and U.K. Top 20 chart listings side by side, showing at a glance the status of hits from 1954 to 1994 on both sides of the Atlantic. Based on the official Billboard and NME/Music Week.

About this title

About the Author:

Dave McAleer is a music journalist and author whose previous books include The Chart Book (published by Guinness in the US) and Chart Beats (published by Guinness in the US). He was also a contributor to The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (published by Guinness in the US). He has also been record label manager for Pye, Stax and RCA amongst others. He does chart research for Sky Television's "UK Top 40," supplies daily trivia for radio and writes regularly for Vox, Replay/Gold CD and Country Music People. He also started the 'Music Business Trivia League' that led to numerous pop quizzes on radio and television.

Dave McAleer is a music journalist and author whose previous books include The Chart Book (published by Guinness in the US) and Chart Beats (published by Guinness in the US). He was also a contributor to The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (published by Guinness in the US). He has also been record label manager for Pye, Stax and RCA amongst others. He does chart research for Sky Television's "UK Top 40," supplies daily trivia for radio and writes regularly for Vox, Replay/Gold CD and Country Music People. He also started the 'Music Business Trivia League' that led to numerous pop quizzes on radio and television.

From Booklist:

In the middle of the night, Slim Whitman's TV ads claim number-one hit songs no one has heard of. With this new book you can check out his sales and see that for the U.K. his claims are true.

The bulk of the book is made up of top-20 charts from 1954 through 1993. Each section opens with an overview of the decade before presenting the charts year by year. U.K. and U.S. monthly charts are given on facing pages for easy comparison. Each listing gives that month's and the previous month's position, title, artist, record label, weeks in the top 20, position in the other country's chart, and initials indicating gold or platinum sales or first or last appearance on the charts. Alongside the charts are sidebars with music trivia, illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

Two indexes allow access by artist and song title. The artist index gives song title and first month it appeared on the charts. Notation is given for shared hits and reissued songs. The title index cross-references the user to the artist index.

The All Music Book of Hit Singles complements rather than competes with Whitburn's Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (5th ed., Watson-Guptill, 1992). McAleer allows easy access by date and covers the hits in the U.K. as well as the U.S. Whitburn covers recordings weekly rather than monthly and looks at the top 40, not just the top 20. At this price, public libraries will want to own both.

About this edition

• Publisher: Backbeat Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0879303301
• ISBN 13: 9780879303303
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 431