Following the rise of Aretha Franklin's career from a child singing in her father's church's choir to her international superstardom, 'Respect' is the remarkable true story of the music icon's journey to find her voice.

Aretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel prodigy who gave birth to two sons in her teens and left them and her native Detroit for New York, where she struggled to find her true voice. She found fame, fortune, and that remarkable voice in 1967 with "Respect" and a rapid-fire string of hits. Aretha turned the industry on its head by refueling pop...

This is the definitive biography of this extraordinary and controversial superstar, written by Geoff Brown, a former editor of Black Music magazine. For three decades James Brown dominated the changing face of post-war popular black music. Others were as inspirational in the short term, and several of his successors have been bigger pop stars, but none matched Brown's independent authority, sustained influence or commercial longevity. But while...

One of the most influential singers and songwriters of all time, Sam Cooke was among the first to blend gospel music and secular themes--the early foundation of soul music. He was the opposite of Elvis: a black performer who appealed to white audiences, who wrote his own songs, who controlled his own business destiny. No biography has previously been written that fully captures Sam Cooke's accomplishments, the importance of his contribution to American...

"The My Itty-Bitty Bio series are biographies for the earliest readers. This book examines the life of Stevie Wonder in a simple, age-appropriate way that will help children develop word recognition and reading skills." -- provided by publisher

Presents the life of one of the bestselling artists of all time, from her start singing in front of her father's Baptist congregation to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In the first volume of the Barrytown Trilogy, Roddy Doyle, winner of the Booker Prize for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, introduces The Commitments, a group of fame-starved, working-class Irish youths with a paradoxical passion for the music of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding and a mission?to bring Soul to Dublin. Doyle writes about the band with a fan's enthusiasm and about Dublin with a native's cheerful knowingness. His book captures all the shadings of the...