Chicago Review Press: 838 books

In the months before she died, Florence Ballard, the spunky teenager who founded the most successful female vocal group in history-the Supremes-told her own side of the story. Recorded on tape, Flo shed light on all areas of her life, including the surprising identity of the man by whom she was raped...

Chronicling a young woman’s four-year relationship with the lead singer of the Doors, this intensely intimate memoir provides a direct and unprecedented view of the late-1960s Los Angeles subculture. When Judy Huddleston's parents got divorced, she spent her last year of high school attending concerts....

Retracing the life of Buck Owens-from his poverty-stricken youth as the son of a sharecropper to one of the nation’s best-loved and wealthiest entertainers-this biography pays tribute to the man and his music by revealing his genius, his warmth, his humor, his vulnerabilities, and his flaws. It...

Complete with never-before-revealed details about the sex, violence, and drugs in her life, this biography reveals the incredibly turbulent life of Motown artist Mary Wells. Based in part on four hours of previously unreleased and unpublicized deathbed interviews with Wells, this account delves deeply...

Providing a clear look into the life of one of the greatest Mississippi bluesmen, this is the first biography of the late Skip James, perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. His 1931 performances of "Devil Got My Woman," "I'm So Glad," and "22-20...

Both a love story and a tribute to the entertainment mecca, this exploration shines a spotlight on one of the hottest acts in Las Vegas in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The illuminating depiction showcases the unlikely duo-a grizzled, veteran trumpeter and vocalist molded by Louis Armstrong and...

From an idiosyncratic childhood in a sleepy British market town to the top of the international pop charts, this first critical examination of the life of Brian Eno charts a lengthy and colorful journey. Interviews with many key collaborators-such as David Byrne, Robert Wyatt, John Cale, Bryan Ferry,...

Frank Sinatra was the greatest entertainer of his age, invigorating American popular song with innovative phrasing and a mastery of drama and emotion. Drawing upon interviews with hundreds of his collaborators as well as with "The Voice" himself, this book chronicles, critiques, and celebrates...

Rick James played with Neil Young, self-produced his first album (later picked up by Motown), crossed rock and funk to come up with one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s, became one of the biggest pop stars of the era, turned a young white woman named Teena Marie into an R&B superstar, displayed...

Leonard Cohen, one of the most admired performers of the last half century, has had a stranger-than-fiction, roller-coaster ride of a life. Now, for the first time, he tells his story in his own words, via more than 50 interviews conducted worldwide between 1966 and 2012. In *Leonard Cohen on Leonard...

This definitive biography, based on exclusive and extensive interviews with Patsy Cline's mother, husband, and the country stars who knew and loved her, is now updated to feature a host of never-before-published photographs and letters and an afterword that details controversial claims about her birth,...

Robert Johnson is the subject of the most famous myth about the history of the blues: he allegedly sold his soul at the crossroads in exchange for his incredible talent, and this deal led to his tragic death at age 27. This single notion can be recited by everyone who has ever heard of him, but the...

From his emergence in the 1950s as an uncannily beautiful young Oklahoman who became the prince of “cool” jazz seemingly overnight to his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and previously...

This autobiographical portrait of Tom Waits takes shape through a selection of more than 50 interviews. Starting with the first interview-on KPFK-FM’s Folkscene in 1973-Waits speaks out on a variety of topics and shares something truly unique with his readers. In a rap that is a synthesis of inflections-Louis...