For The Record

The decade of the '60s dawned inauspiciously as American astronauts orbited the Earth and ultimately stepped onto the surface of the Moon. By the end of the decade, the planet convulsed in epochal change. The pill. The Berlin Wall. "I Have a Dream." The Free Speech Movement. The "summer of love." Haight-Ashbury. The counterculture. Hippies. Flower children. Grass. Mescaline. LSD. Woodstock. The Stonewall Riot. Helter-Skelter.

The youth culture was likewise fomenting change, with adolescents engaging in behaviors and listening to music that puzzled, exasperated, and antagonized their parents. The musical performers profiled in For the Record, Volume 3 were agents of that change. Like their fans, the performers were young, and many of them had veered from intended career paths when fame overcame them.

Through conversations with musicians, singers, and their family members, coauthors Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March share fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses into the lives of these talented performers: The Buckinghams ("Kind of a Drag"), Bobby Goldsboro ("Autumn of My Life"), the Moody Blues ("Nights in White Satin"), Donnie Brooks ("Mission Bell"), Sam and Dave ("Hold On, I'm Comin'"), Ray Stevens ("Everything Is Beautiful"), and the Grass Roots ("Midnight Confessions").

For the Record, Volume 3 is the product of five guiding principles:

1.We obtained information about all artists we profiled from conversations we had with the performers themselves (and with family members of some of the deceased performers);

2.We collaborated with the performers, who reviewed and authenticated our manuscripts;

3.All performers profiled were soloists or members of vocal groups or bands whose recordings scored on the national pop music singles and/or album charts during the 1960s and early '70s;

4.We placed an emphasis on achievement, celebrating the personal and professional triumphs of performers within and outside the music industry following the 1960s;

5.We intentionally selected artists representative of the widely divergent musical styles that distinguished the 1960s from all other decades of the 20th century - musical diversity encompassing and influenced by rockabilly, rhythm and blues, surf music, jazz, folk, calypso, the British Invasion, novelty tunes, folk-rock, art rock, psychedelia, and country music.

Each chapter encompasses three segments:

•A historical overview of the highlights of each artist's recording career;

•A discography list of prominent hit recordings of each artist; and

•Biographical epilogues chronicling the life experiences of soloists and band members.

For the Record, Volume 3 affords many new insights into the personal lives of these individuals, and documents that information for the record. We look beyond the music and peel away misperceptions and debunk myths about 21 individuals with the same concerns as ours: establishing a stable household, the challenges of parenthood, paying the mortgage and the phone bill, caring for aging parents. We discover that beneath the public veneer, they are simply people whose jobs have involved creating music and performing in front of thousands of fans.

The paperback edition contains 60 photos. The e-book edition contains seven photos.