What'd I Say: The Atlantic Story- 50 Years of Music

by Ahmet Ertegun

The official behind-the-scenes story of the meteroic rise of Rock and Roll by the people who made it history.

Genres: Music, History, Biography

528 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Kevin A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A richly illustrated coffee table book of the first fifty years of Atlantic Records, this book still offers quite a lot of substance in its glossy pages. Granted, the book loses steam when it hits the 1980s and 1990s. The label was still successfully breaking new stars, but wasn’t defining a musical culture the way it had from the 1940s through the 1970s, primarily thorough R&B/Soul but also in jazz, hard rock, Sourhern rock, Progressive rock, and disco.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked up this marvelous, gigantic book from a second-hand dealer for 30 euros. It's a book I'd wanted for some time and had realised was becoming increasingly hard to find outside of the collector's markets. If you have a serious interest in discovering why the popular music of the second half of the 20th century was so replete with talent and creative energy you need to read this book and books like it. This is the first-hand story, not only of wave upon wave of musical genius, but of an era before the corporations took control of music and turned everything into the digital equivalent of aural diarrhoea.

[Mitchell Caplan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing book. The history of Atlantic and the artists they represented back inn the day is truly a great look into a glorious period in the music business.

From Jazz to Blues to Rock to Soul, the broad range of artists and stories are fun, entertaining, and if you are a real fan of the history of music, a great read.