This is the sixth edition of the canonical discography for jazz records. Everyone who collects vintage jazz should have a copy of this two volume set. It was out of print for several years, but this new edition is available on-line from Mainspring Press.
This book does for dance bands what Rust's Jazz Records does for jazz bands. This book set is also out of print.
This book is an odd one, in that its subject matter is poorly defined. I think it's an attempt to cover the areas not covered by the above two books, but it's a patchwork. In the introduction, the authors say that they deliberately exclude jazz, blues, and dance band records, and also "truly prolific" artists like Billy Murray and Henry Burr. So, in a sense, this book covers the leftovers. The book's reputation among serious collectors is not very good, but it's the only book of its kind that I know of.
Rust had originally planned to make a Volume 1, covering years
before 1925, but he never did it, so the only volume in this book
series is volume 2.
This book lists thousands of songs by title, giving the names of the songwriters, the date of the song's introduction or initial popularity, major recordings and other recordings of interest, and other facts. It is cross-indexed by year of introduction and by songwriter.
This book is similar to Lissauer's Encyclopedia (above), but is not as complete or as well-researched. It does contain some interesting anecdotes about the music business (Dick Jacobs, the co-author, was a record company executive). I generally only use this book when I can't find what I'm looking for in Lissauer.
This is a five-volume set. The first volume gives a chronological history of songs and recordings, listing musicals, songs, and recordings year-by-year from 1900 through 1950. The second and third volumes have short biographies and abridged output of over 2000 musicians and songwriters. The fourth volume contains indexes and appendices - the indexes organized by song, performer, and musical, and the appendices listing the entire output (by catalog number) of nine major record labels from 1900 through 1950, Academy Award nominees and winners for music, Down Beat and Metronome poll winners, and dating guides for 19 major labels. The fifth volume consists of updates to the biographies.
This book allows the reader to figure out in what year a record was made either by catalog number or by matrix number (the numbers on the label and in the shellac, respectively). It is not well printed or bound, but it is the only book of its kind that I know of, and is the result of years of work by Steven Barr. Every collector of 78s should own a copy of this book.
This booklet consists mostly of suggested equalizer settings for different records, cataloged by label, catalog and matrix number, and date. This book is a great time-saver for me. Although anyone should be able to set their equalizer properly by ear, it is useful to have a reference that suggests an initial setting. My experience has been that their suggested settings are usually right, and when they're not right, they're close.
This book is similar to Lissauer, above, but it's not as good. The Whitburn book has a poor reputation among serious collectors - the book is full of inaccuracies, and even some things that Whitburn must have made up from whole cloth. For example, he lists the top-selling records for each year according to the "charts", but for most of the years he covered there were no charts. He also credits Billy Murray with recording Take Me Out to the Ball Game on Victor 5570, yet Murray never recorded the song.Still, it's worth having the book around. I just don't believe anything it says without verifying it.
This book gives the history of many different American record labels and record manufacturers, as well as the genealogy of the record companies (it's full of buy-outs, splits, and mergers).
This book is a follow-up to the one above. It's more complete, and it comes with a CD-ROM with a database of labels, with pictures and information about each label's genealogy. It is the best book I know on the subject.
The book covers the same subject as Sutton, above, but doesn't do it as well. Rust's book is not as thorough, and has some inaccuracies, but it is still worth having.
This is one of the better encyclopedias of jazz. It covers performers, styles, instruments, terms, etc.
This is one of the standard texts on blues artists. It covers the years 1900 through 1977, roughly. It contains bibliographies of most of the major blues artists.
This book catalogs blues recordings by era and style. It is not comprehensive, but it is very educational because of the way it categorizes records and performers.
Home