Book excerpt: "The Best of the Music Makers does what no other book has done before. It projects, through warmly written and fact-packed articles, the lives, careers, and personalities of almost 300 of the most important performers to light up the popular music scene during the past fifty years. While delineating the contributions of each of these artists, this book of more than 500 fact-packed pages and over 300 powerful photos (some never seen before), zooms in on its subjects via anecdotal materials and their own direct quotes as well as those from close associates, so that each emerges as a vital human being as well as a world-renowned performer. The Best of the Music Makers runs the entire gamut of popular music: jazz, rock, folk, country, rhythm and blues, middle-of-the-road, motion pictures, musical comedies, night clubs, and the like." --