The Best Composers & Musicians Biographies & Memoirs 2026

1. Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World, (Paperback)

An NPR Best Book of the Year - Winner of the Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism "This is the best book about the Beatles ever written" --Mashable Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape offers an entertaining, unconventional look at the most popular band in history, the Beatles, exploring what they mean today and why they still matter so intensely to a generation that has never known a world without them. Dreaming the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles, or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn't another exposé about how they broke up. It isn't a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles music on their parents' stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? And why do they still matter so much to us, nearly fifty years after they broke up? As he did in his previous books, Love is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and Turn Around Bright Eyes, Sheffield focuses on the emotional connections we make to music. This time, he focuses on the biggest pop culture phenomenon of all time--The Beatles. In his singular voice, he explores what the Beatles mean today, to fans who have learned to love them on their own terms and not just for the sake of nostalgia. Dreaming the Beatles tells the story of how four lads from Liverpool became the world's biggest pop group, then broke up--but then somehow just kept getting bigger. At this point, their music doesn't belong to the past--it belongs to right now. This book is a celebration of that music, showing why the Beatles remain the world's favorite thing--and how they invented the future we're all living in today.

Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World, (Paperback) Author: Dey Street Books ISBN: 9780062207661 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2018-06-19 Page Count: 384

2. Hal Leonard Bessie Smith Songbook Piano, Vocal, Guitar Songbook

This 38-song book is a tribute to the work of Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues who is unquestionably the greatest of the vaudeville blues singers. The songbook is arranged for piano, guitar, and vocals and also includes a biography, discography, lots of photos. Features classic songs like: After You've Gone; Baby Doll; Baby, Won't You Please Come Home; Cake Walking Babies; Gimme A Pigfoot; A Good Man Is Hard To Find; Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out; and more.

Bessie Smith Songbook (Paperback)

3. Pre-Owned Jimi Hendrix - Smash Hits (Paperback) 0634056638 9780634056635

Jimi Hendrix - Smash Hits (Guitar Recorded Versions), ISBN-10 0634056638, ISBN-13 9780634056635, 120 pages, Hal Leonard, Binding: Paperback

Jimi Hendrix - Smash Hits (Guitar Recorded Versions) ISBN-10 0634056638, ISBN-13 9780634056635 120 pages Hal Leonard Binding: Paperback

4. Pre-Owned Sara Bareilles - Little Voice: Easy Piano (Paperback) 1603781056 9781603781053

9781603781053. Pre-Owned: Good condition. Other. Language: English. (Easy Piano Personality). A Northern California girl, Sara Bareilles has garnered comparisons to Norah Jones and Fiona Apple. She released her first CD in 2004, but "Love Song," featured as an iTunes free single of the week in June of 2007 and in a commercial for the online music service Rhapsody, catapulted her to stardom. Cherry Lane proudly presents the matching folio to her major-label debut, certified gold by the RIAA. The Easy Piano songbook features her megahit "Love Song" and 11 others, plus photos and an introduction by Sara herself. Other songs: Between the Lines * Bottle It Up * City * Come Round Soon * Fairytale * Gravity * Love on the Rocks * Many the Miles * Morningside * One Sweet Love * Vegas.

Sara Bareilles - Little Voice: Easy Piano ISBN-10 1603781056, ISBN-13 9781603781053 Author: Bareilles; Sara 88 pages Cherry Lane Music Group Binding: Paperback

5. Pre-Owned Beatles Ballads (Paperback) 0793533511 9780793533510

(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook). This second edition features 32 of the Beatles' best ballads, including: And I Love Her * Because * Blackbird * Eleanor Rigby * The Fool on the Hill * Here Comes the Sun * Here, There and Everywhere * Hey Jude * In My Life * Let It Be * The Long and Winding Road * Something * Yesterday * and more. Contributor: The Beatles

Beatles Ballads Piano, Vocal and Guitar Chords ISBN-10 0793533511, ISBN-13 9780793533510 Author: Beatles; The 2 edition 120 pages Hal Leonard Binding: Paperback

6. Pre-Owned Spider on the Floor (Paperback) 0517885530 9780517885536

Our books are pre-loved which means they have been read before. We carefully check all our books and believe them to be in a - USED - VERY GOOD Condition condition. If you're not completely satisfied please get in touch & we'll be happy to help. ISBN-10: 0517885530, ISBN.-13: 9780517885536 Unfortunately we do not have a summary for this item at the moment.

Title: Spider on the Floor Book Format: Paperback ISBN10: 0517885530 EAN: 9780517885536 Genre: MUSIC / Printed Music / General Author: Raffi Pre-Owned Condition- Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.

7. Dover Books on Music: Composers Scriabin, a Biography: Second, Revised Edition, (Paperback)

This definitive biography of Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915), newly revised and updated by the author, incorporates many confessional letters and personal reminiscences in a vivid, highly personal portrait of the controversial Russian composer. One of the visionary pioneers who sought a new musical language -- at least a full decade before the advances of Stravinsky and Schoenberg -- Scriabin immersed himself in a search for a way to express, in sound, the mystical and theosophical ideals that obsessed him. This monumental biography probes the complexities of the composer's personal revolution as it chronicles the turbulent events of his upbringing, marital life, and career: his tours of Europe and America, abandonment of his wife, brushes with homosexuality and madness, and the flowering of an unrealized vision to synthesize all of art and life in an all-encompassing final work. Originally published in two volumes, the work is republished here in one volume unabridged, complete with a catalog of Scriabin's works and 49 rare photographs.

Dover Books on Music: Composers Scriabin, a Biography: Second, Revised Edition, (Paperback) Author: Dover Publications ISBN: 9780486288970 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2011-03-17 Page Count: 672

8. Carl Orff (Paperback)

(Schott). The booklet is based on the text contributed to "Die Grossen Deutschen unserer Epoche" (Berlin 1985). In simply-expressed language, it summarises his life, its influences and the development of his work. Probably one of Orff's closest colleagues, the author brings his unique personal acquaintance with man and music to provide a concise insight to his subject. With bibliography. Illustrated.

Carl Orff (Paperback)

9. The Memory of All That : The Life of George Gershwin (Paperback)

THE MEMORY OF ALL THAT: THE LIFE OF GEORGE GERSHWIN

This is a startlingly fresh account of the life of one of the greatest 20th-century Americans, composer and songwriter George Gershwin. Joan Peyser examines Gershwin's character, his complex relationship with brother and collaborator Ira, and his several romantic affairs. This 2007 edition includes newly discovered information in an author's introduction.

10. Hal Leonard Acoustic (Easy Guitar with Notes & Tab) Easy Gu

33 top hits in easy arrangements with tab, including: Babe,

Acoustic: Easy Guitar with Notes & Tab (Paperback)