Great book for all soul music fans - recommended

[snakepit]

Just finished reading a great book about the late 50's/early 60's New York R&B/Pop music years. Titled "Always magic in the air" [[The Bomp and brilliance of the Brill Building era), it tells the stories of songwriters Lieber & Stoller, Sedaka & Greenfield, Goffin & King, Pomus & Shuman, Mann & Weil , Barry & Greenwich and Bacharach & David.

There are great tales of recordings we are all familiar with, and many big R&B and Soul music artists are covered. Big names such as Drifters, Coasters,Ben E. King, Shirelles, Dionne Warwick and many more...but how about these names , weel known to Northern Soul collectors
Lou Johnson, Jerry Butler, Jay Traynor [[And Americans), Tony Middleton, Bessie Banks, Earl Jean,Maxine Brown, Chuck Jackson,Exciters, Dee Dee Warwick, and many more.
I got my copy from Amazon and only paid about £6 including P&P.
A great read for Soul Fans...treat yourself

[JIVE FIVE Mary G.]

This book sounds like a must read!! I hope my guys are included since they were on the scene at that time. Thanks for posting, Snakepit.

[imnokid]

Love Lou Johnson

[theboyfromxtown]

I found it hard going and still haven't finished it. I bought it in paperback form for £2 in that cheap book shop across the road from St Pancras station in London.

[soulwally]

Read it three or four years ago. Thoroughly enjoyed it, told me much I didn't know about the Brill 'machine' - and of course led to me spending even more money buying music from that era. Goffin-King [[of course), Mann-Weil and Barry-Greenwich are among my favourite songwriting teams.

[soulster]

Thanks for the tip!