Life of A Song: Volumes 1 and 2

by Jan Dalley, David Cheal

Discover the stories behind the songs THE LIFE OF A SONG contains the stories of 100 songs exploring each song's biography and how they took on a new life following their release. Packed with intriguing factoids, these bite-sized essays will delight music fans and send you scurrying back to listen to the songs in all their beauty and mystery. Who knew that Paul McCartney originally referred to Yesterday as 'Scrambled Eggs' because he couldn't think of any lyrics for his heart-breaking tune? Or that Patti LaBelle didn't know what 'Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?' actually meant? These and countless other back stories fill this book. Each 600-word piece gives a mini-biography of a single song, from its earliest form through the various covers and changes, often morphing from one genre to another, always focusing on the 'biography' of the song itself while including the many famous artists who have performed or recorded it. This book collects 100 of the best pieces from the highly successful The Life of a Song columns from the FT Weekend every Saturday. Inside you'll find rock, pop, folk, jazz and more. Each piece is pithy, sparkily written, knowledgeable, entertaining, full of anecdotes and surprises. They combine deep musical knowledge with the vivid background of the performers and musicians, and of course the often intriguing social and political background against which the songs were created.

256 pages, Paperback

Published December 6, 2022

Reviews

[Arnoldo Malo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A MUST for any music lover like me, tje only downside to my taste is that I found it a bit pop-culture driven but of course, it needed to be like that. Anyhow, great addition to any library, specially if you can arrange to listen to some of the songs and its covers!

[James Tidd · Rating 4 out of 5]

100 of the most well known songs are covered in this one volume book of the former two volume set.

How did Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes and You'll never walk alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers become adapted as famous football terrace chants? If Ray Davies had stuck to Waterloo Sunset's original title Liverpool Sunset, would the song have had the same impact?

Each chapter tells the story of a song, unearthing its beginnings, its story and its descendants. In the book, you'll find a song that's speeding through space, songs that have become favourites at funerals, songs that have been used and abused by politicians.

[Luciano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compilation of the FT Weekend column; much better read them together in a nicely compiled book than piecemeal. Life of a Song is very schematic, like it or not, but the small columns are almost always well-written, researched, and bringing something you didn't know about a famous song.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

A very interesting and nostalgic look a a very different set of songs . A great read for anyone interested in music .