THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1): Another updated Table of Contents

As I work toward a complete first draft of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), I continue to tweak its sequence and some of its subject matter. Here's the current adjusted Table of Contents:

FOREWORD
DISCLAIMERS AND DECLARATIONS (A User's Guide To The Greatest Record Ever Made!)
OVERTURE A Fistful Of 45s

1. BADFINGER: Baby Blue

2. CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land
3. DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You
4. THE SEX PISTOLS: God Save The Queen
5. ELVIS PRESLEY: Heartbreak Hotel
6. PATTI SMITH: Gloria
7. LITTLE RICHARD: The Girl Can't Help It
8. NEIL DIAMOND: Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show
9. CRAZY ELEPHANT: Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' 
10. WILSON PICKETT: In The Midnight Hour
11. THE HOLLIES: I Can't Let Go
12. THE SHIRELLES: Will You Love Me Tomorrow
13. BUDDY HOLLY: Peggy Sue/Everyday
14. JOHNNY NASH: I Can See Clearly Now
15. THE RUBINOOS: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
16. GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS: Midnight Train To Georgia
17. THE RARE BREED: Beg, Borrow And Steal
18. THE 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: You're Gonna Miss Me
19. THE ROLLING STONES: Get Off Of My Cloud
20. PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS: Just Like Me
21. THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
INTERLUDE I Dream Of Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Tommy (and occasionally Marky, Richie, C.J., and/or new recruits)
22. ARETHA FRANKLIN: Respect
23. THE MONKEES: Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)
24. KISS: Shout It Out Loud
25. THE WHO: I Can't Explain
26. TODD RUNDGREN: Couldn't I Just Tell You
27. THE RASPBERRIES: I Wanna Be With You
28. THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise
29. SHOES: Tomorrow Night
30. SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES: The Tears Of A Clown
31. THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Personality Crisis
32. THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR: I Fought The Law
33. THE EASYBEATS: Friday On My Mind
34.  BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes
35. OTIS REDDING: (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
36. TRANSLATOR: Everywhere That I'm Not
37. LESLEY GORE: You Don't Own Me
38. THE LEFT BANKE: Walk Away, Renee
39. P. P. ARNOLD: The First Cut Is The Deepest
40. PRINCE: When You Were Mine
41. THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Rock And Roll Love Letter
42. THE KNICKERBOCKERS: Lies
INTERLUDE The Tottenham Sound Of...The Beatles?!
43. THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Any Way You Want It
44. JAMES BROWN: Please, Please, Please
45. GRAND FUNK: We're An American Band
46. SAMMY AMBROSE: This Diamond Ring
47. THE FIRST CLASS: Beach Baby
48. THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Summer Breeze
49. BIG STAR: September Gurls
50. MARVIN GAYE: I Heard It Through The Grapevine
ENTR'ACTE THE BEATLES: Yesterday
51. THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES: Shake Some Action
52. THE SEARCHERS: Hearts In Her Eyes
53. THE FLIRTATIONS: Nothing But A Heartache
54. THE SPINNERS: I'll Be Around
55. ALICE COOPER: School's Out
56. BARON DAEMON & THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist
57. SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Everybody Is A Star
58. TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS: American Girl
59. DAVID RUFFIN: I Want You Back
60. LED ZEPPELIN: Communication Breakdown
INTERLUDE Old Time Time Rock & Roll
61. THE BOB SEGER SYSTEM: 2 + 2 = ?
62. BEN E. KING: Stand By Me
63. THE BYRDS: I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better
64. THE BANDWAGON: Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache
65. THE GO-GO'S: We Got The Beat
66. THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS: St. Valentine's Day Massacre
67. GENE PITNEY: Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa
68. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: I'll Be Your Mirror
69. FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie
70. THE DRIFTERS: On Broadway
71. SAM & DAVE: Soul Man
72. THE SPONGETONES: (My Girl) Maryanne
73. THE TRAMMPS: Disco Inferno
74. HAROLD MELVIN AND THE BLUE NOTES: Don't Leave Me This Way
75. THE JIVE FIVE: What Time Is It?
76. PAUL COLLINS: Walking Out On Love

77. T. REX: 20th Century Boy

78. GRANDMASTER & MELLE MEL: White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)
79. THE KINKS: You Really Got Me
80. THE KINKS: Waterloo Sunset
81. THE FOUR TOPS: Reach Out I'll Be There
82. THE SMITHEREENS: Behind The Wall Of Sleep
83. THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me
84. THE SUPREMES: You Keep Me Hangin' On 
85. MATERIAL ISSUE: Kim The Waitress
86. ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS: (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?
87. FREDA PAYNE: Band Of Gold
88. THE EVERLY BROTHERS: Gone, Gone, Gone
89. THE BEACH BOYS: God Only Knows
90. LULU: To Sir, With Love (Museum Outings Montage)
91. MANNIX: Highway Lines
92. THE SELECTER: On My Radio
93. SOLOMON BURKE: Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
94. CHEAP TRICK Surrender
95. DAVID BOWIE: Life On Mars?
96. THE O'JAYS: Put Your Hands Together
97. THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Uncle John's Band
98. EDDIE & THE HOT RODS: Do Anything You Wanna Do
99. STEVIE WONDER: I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)
100. EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year
ENCORE! THE JAYHAWKS: I'm Gonna Make You Love Me
An Infinite Number
Underrating The Beatles
THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! THE BEATLES: Rain
LAST CALL! THE T-BONES: No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)
CODA Cruisin' Music
BONUS TRACKS/AFTERWORD   

This reflects some additions and subtractions over the past three weeks or so since our last update. I've taken out an extraneous interlude about The Monkees (a pity, since Micky Dolenz himself expressed approval of the piece in a different forum), deleted unwritten chapters about Don Henley and Rufus, deleted a completed entry about Wham! that felt redundant, and added an outta-left-field (and still unwritten) chapter about "Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache," a song by an undeservedly obscure '60s and '70s pop soul group called The Bandwagon (later Johnny Johnson & the Bandwagon). 



I also decided that some of the chapters dealing with power pop didn't play well in their original sequence; that's been fixed, at least for now. The goal is to make this read like something you don't want to put down once you start reading it. This isn't supposed to be a reference book; this is a book about pop music, how it affects us, why it affects us, the good and less-good aspects of our immersion within (and obsession with) the sounds we love. It's a non-fiction story about feelings, sensations, frustrations, and dreams of perfect radio.



Having recently finished watching the Ken Burns history of country music, I find myself tempted to add either "Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard or a less obvious choice (John Hiatt's "Pink Bedroom," as performed by Rosanne Cash), but I'm leaning against it as of now. We'll see. It ain't final 'til the needle drops. 



THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1)

Our path is finite. Its soundtrack is not.

As pop music fans, we may have one all-time favorite song that stands out for us as the greatest record ever made. But in another moment, we may shift our allegiance to a different song, and then to another. We’re not fickle. We’re enthusiastic, and we’re sincere. We love our music. We lose ourselves in the music we love.

An infinite number of songs can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Acclaimed pop journalist Carl Cafarelli (Goldmine, This Is Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio) brings his own passion and enthusiasm to The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), a collection of 100+ essays about 100+ great songs, celebrating both the immortality and the in-the-moment immediacy of the rockin' pop music we cherish. The subjects include Rock And Roll Hall Of Famers like The Beatles, Chuck Berry, The Sex Pistols, Aretha Franklin, The Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Prince, and many more.

But The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) encompasses more than just those enshrined in a Hall of Fame. It includes hit acts like Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes,  Sammy Ambrose’s forgotten original of “This Diamond Ring,” cult acts like The 13th Floor Elevators and Big Star, teen idols like The Bay City Rollers, and relative unknowns like Baron Daemon and the Vampires: rock, soul, R & B, pop, punk, bubblegum, ska, power pop, girl groups, and disco. This is not a definitive list of the 100 best songs ever recorded. Rather, it's a 100+-song block party of great tracks, each one the greatest in its own infinite turn. It's a celebration, exhaustively and enthusiastically crafted by a pop journalist who loves each of these records without reservation.

Why did The Monkees go from the top of the pops in 1967 to seeming has-been status in 1968? How did James Brown respond to the British Invasion? What minefields of racism, sexism, homophobia, ambition, frustration, depression, or loss were navigated by Little Richard, Dusty Springfield, The Go-Go's, Elvis, Sly and the Family Stone, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, The Supremes, and Material Issue's Jim Ellison? Were The Ramones as much a bubblegum band as they were a punk band? When does a group succeed or fail in its quixotic quest to be the next Beatles? 

Our favorite records don't live in isolation. Each one has a story. The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) mixes history lessons, artist appreciation, and the ways in which the records we love can deeply affect our personal lives. Part personal memoir and part rockin’ pop record hop, The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is the book for anyone who’s ever yelled “Turn It Up!”

Or, better yet: “Play that again!” Your infinite turn awaits. Welcome to the world of The Greatest Record Ever Made!

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Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

(And you can still get our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, on CD from Kool Kat Musik and as a download from Futureman Records.)

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).