Customer Reviews

Pop Memories 1890-1954: The History of American Popular Music

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Music charts never tell the whole story as anybody who has followed pop charts of any era will know. They serve as an approximate guide to what music was fashionable at the time.

It is particularly important to note that the economic depression of the thirties meant that a lot of singers chose to do radio broadcasts rather than make a lot of records which few could afford. This explains why Frances Langford (for example) was extremely popular yet had few hits.

The other thing you notice is that then, as now, some of the songs you think would have been massive hits (like Moonlight in Vermont and Georgia on my mind) were only modest hits, while other songs which were massive hits appear to have sunk without trace.

Despite all that, this is a valuable source of information for anybody seriously interested in the music of the pre-Elvis era, although very little music is currently available from the early 1920's or before.

I don't think this book could be improved much. Death dates updated? Nice but hardly essential. Pictures? If you buy the music, you'll probably get a picture of the singer. As to the very early artists, photography was also primitive, so pictures may not be available, unless paintings or drawings are available.

There is one improvement which would be really useful - include all the later hits from 1955 onwards for major artists who had a lot of hits up to 1954. Wouldn't it be great to have the complete hits record of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and other major artists in one volume?

But that's a minor point - the information here is not available anywhere else. It's well worth the price if you're into this sort of music.

I have owned books by Joel Whitburn for over two decades now. As an avid record collector and someone who is extremely interested in the history of popular music I cannot imagine life without them. Of all of Whitburn's books "Pop Memories 1890-1954: The History of American Popular Music" is perhaps my very favorite. This book is unique among the Whitburn offerings in that it begins with a seven page "Chronology of Milestones in Popular Music/Recording History 1877-1954." It is a fascinating look at the history of the recording industry beginning with Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph. You will also learn about the history of the Billboard music charts as well as the beginnings of two of America's most venerable record labels Columbia and Victor.

But the main thrust of any Joel Whitburn book is the chart information. In "Pop Memories" you will find an artist by artist listing of over 12000 records that appeared on various pop music charts from 1890 through 1954. By perusing the pages of this book you will learn about some of the most popular turn of the century artists such as Henry Burr and Billy Murray. You will be amazed at how dominant such long forgotten artists as the American Quartet and Paul Whiteman were in their day. Of particular interest to me was how prolific Bing Crosby was between 1931 and 1954. During that period Crosby had an astounding 340 charted records!!! It is also fun to peruse some of the titles. You learn that things really don't change all that much. My very favorite among these is a 1915 hit by the Peerless Quartet entitled "Cows May Come, Cows May Go, But the Bull Goes On Forever."

You may be a bit put off by the price of a Joel Whitburn book. But believe me if you are a serious collector they are worth every penny. I bought my copy of "Pop Memories 1890-1954: The History of American Popular Music" more than fifteen years ago and still refer to it frequently. Very highly recommended!

The information contained in this book is beyond compare. The complete pre-rock and roll era, from 1890 through 1954, is here at your fingertips. The Crew Cuts? Here they are. How about Helen Kane (the 'boop boop a doop' girl)? She's here, too. Nora Bayes? Yup! There she is. And thousands more. This book convinced me to search out the music contained herein-not an easy task-but I obtained much of it, and now I'm hooked. Thank God for the web to help me locate this historical music, and thank God for Joel Whitburn for all of the extremely hard work that he had to put into the making of this book. Artists names, release dates, chart numbers (some fabricated but the good intention is there), label and numbers, and artist info. One word of warning in the purchase of this book-you may find yourself searching out and listening to the hits of 1910, 1927, 1941........

I bought this book a year ago and this helped me learn about the popular music of one century ago. I'm glad it gives me info about artists and musicians 80% of the world has never heard of like Billy Murray, Paul Whiteman and Len Spencer. This is extremely outdated, but still useful. Record Research unfortunately said that they haven't talked about plans updating it yet. I encourage for future editions they add the features they use in current RR books like pictures of the artists that made everything happen, B-sides, price guides, and most importantly, expanded information and death dates. I encourage collectors and music enthusiasts to buy this.

I purchased this book through Mr.Whitburn's Record Research company in 1993-Right away,I was awestruck at the amount of artists & songs that were listed-I was happy to see that the songs that helped to launch the rock era were included,such as "Sh-Boom",& "Shake,Rattle,& Roll"-One reviewer indicated that this book should be updated,as far as listing the years when these artists died-I'm sure that Joel Whitburn would find that to be quite time consuming-Anyway,this book is terrific.

I've been buying Mr. Whitburn's books for decades now my own personal copy of this book is in tatters due to much use in a project just recently finished.
By using the debut dates and chart positions in this and other pop books from Mr. Whitburn, I made my own true chronological Pop database for all charted songs from 1890-2010. A Pop Annual approach but more chronologically exact using the actual debut chart date for each song instead of the year.
I have all songs from the period charted in MP3 format(1890-2010 excepting about 600 songs mostly from pre-1920) in the same chronological order by debut date (then decending chart position within the debut date then total weeks on chart to break position ties) in order to accurately portray musical trends and developments throughout chart history. All MP3s have been dubbed to DVD-Discs in order to provide a companion set to his books making any song seconds to locate. I've also included all Bubblers from 1959-present. (One missing from 1979).
Many of the songs within the book are on the internet in some fashion-it just takes time to find them and a little patience.
The one flaw Mr. Whitburn's Pop Memories has, which I knew going in was that the chart data before July 1940 is flawed as Billboard did not publish a chart before that date-in fact no one has. The data is taken from a variety of sources then computed using whatever formula Mr. Whitburn's staff uses to constitute chart position-so quite frankly the "chart" information is arbitary.
However, since this is the ONLY publication that has this type of information for US charts (the Brits have also published chart books) then this will have to suffice.
For biographical and pictures of the artists I suggest Tim Gracyks excellent book "Recording Pioneers" which is also a bit expensive but priceless.

So far, this book has paid for itself. It came in excellent condition, was a much better price than what I originally expected to pay, which was around twice as much. It has been extremely helpful. It could be sent back now and have served its purpose. Luckily, that is not the case and it will continue to be an excellent resource for years to come!!!

An amazing collection of record charts stretching from the 1890's into the mid 1950's. Lists artist, title, date charted, weeks on chart along with record (or in some very old cases, cylinder) numbers. Chart size varies from decade to decade; anything from 1890-1899 had to make the Top 3 to show up. By the late 30's, anything that made the top 30 is listed. A mind boggling amount of research must have gone into this work. Anyone interested in pop music from this period should be delighted. The book is a little pricey, but I havn't seen anything to compare to it at any price.

I mistreated this book when I had it yeons ago.Ripped pages etc.Because of e-books (I think thats why Icould buy thisfrom the seller).I was able to buy it again.I don't like even seeing dirt or dust on it.Mr.Whiteburn has placed this book he wrote out of print I give a solid review one I hate kindle & e-books & two I like the nostaglia & the knowledge it provides.

I checked it out at the library first, so I knew I would love it. I wish it had songwriter credits, but I understand that Whitburn is not going to update this book because there is no demand.