Links

45cat
Data for thousands of singles, many with label shots and informed comments. See also 45worlds for other formats. Reliable and indispensable.

Discogs
Discographies for 45s, LPs, EPs and 78s, with credits, biographies, release histories, label shots, and sleeve images. This has become a standard reference source.

Discog.info
Artist discographies over several decades. Nicely set out site by Jonas Warsted. [Don’t confuse it with discogs.com!]

US songwriting copyrights: Songview
↑ Search both major copyright outfits, BMI and ASCAP.
See also:
• US Copyright Office: Registrations since 1978 plus renewals of earlier works. An updated interface is being trialled (2023).
• Catalog of Copyright Entries (digitised books) for works from before 1978 (UPenn collection).
You can go directly to the full collection of books at Internet Archive.

Music magazines: archive at World Radio History
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE Huge collection of historic music and broadcasting magazines as PDFs. Essential resource.
Includes Cash Box, Billboard and Record World magazines, and Australian and British sections.

Billboard: back issues at Google Books
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE An alternative interface to the World Radio History collection. (Issues back to 1940; WRH ↑ starts at 1895.)

AllMusic
Established in 1991 as All Music Guide, it’s cluttered and clunky, but it remains an essential source. Look out for well-written biographies by such writers as Bruce Eder, Steve Huey, Richie Unterberger and Jason Ankeny.

This Is My Story
Biographies of numerous rock, pop and country artists, many of them hard to find elsewhere. A legacy of the former Black Cat Rockabilly site, compiled by Dik de Heer from the defunct Yahoo! group Shakin’ All Over.

Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Concise A-Z by Donald Clarke with nearly 4000 entries. This started out as an online copy of Donald’s “Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music” (in print 1989-98), but it now includes additions and updates.

Tom Simon's Rock-and-Roll Page
Actually a number of pages with concise summaries of the careers of about 150 pop and rock aritsts.

'The Tapestry of Delights' by Vernon Joynson (1996 edition)
Internet Archive scan of the classic reference book, a comprehensive guide to British music of the beat, R&B, psychedelic and progressive eras, 1963-1976. There is an updated and expanded edition (2014)

Rockin' Country Style
Terry Gordon’s indispensable Discography of Country Rock & Roll and Related Records, 1951-1964. Covers many obscure records you won’t find elsewhere.

Wang Dang Dula
Rock’n’roll and rhythm’n’blues discographies, meticulously and attractively crafted from Finland by Pete Hoppula.

45-rpm.org.uk
Excellent database and background information on British singles, as well as discographies for obscure artists. Site by Reg Stevens.

PopMusicInfo.com
Useful database searchable by artist, record or song, with a focus on the 60s in Britain, the US and Sweden.

In the Can: sessionographies
Country, R&B and rock’n’roll sessions listed month-by-month from Jan 1954 to Dec 1962. Compiled by Dik de Heer. [Defunct but archived]

• Bruno Ceriotti, rock historian
Meticulously researched artist and performance histories with the “family tree” concept used to show band personnel changes. There are more family trees at Ceriotti’s blogs:
• The San Francisco Sound
• The British Sound

Album Liner Notes
Solid collection of liner notes from several decades, including track listings and credits.

• Internet Broadway Database
The Official Source For Broadway Information: detailed listings of stage productions, scores and people.
• Overtur
Data on stage musicals from New York, London and elsewhere.

American Bandstand episodes guide
At TheTVDB.com. Lists the guests and what they performed, starting at Season 1.

"Oh Boy!" episodes diary
Episode-by-episode history of the British TV pop show “Oh Boy!”, September 1958 – May 1959. [Internet Archive version of old site. Some links might not work.]

New Musical Express: Contents 1953-1969
Useful listing of contents for major British music journal NME. [Archived site]

• Sheet Music 1. Kay's Music Australia
• Sheet Music 2. MusicNotes.com

• The First Wave: Australian rock & pop recordings 1955-1963. [PDF]
• The Sixties: Australian rock and pop recordings 1964–1969 (previously “The Second Wave”) [PDF]
Australian singles and EPs released 1955-1969 in comprehensive discographies from the National Film & Sound Archive. 

Milesago: popular Australasian music & culture 1964-1975
The standard online reference source. Many in-depth artist biographies included.

Howlspace archive
Encyclopedic reference site of Australian and NZ music, edited by Ed Nimmervoll, now defunct but accessible at the Internet Archive.

Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (1999)
Ian McFarlane’s standard, authoritative reference book. Digitised copy at Internet Archive (free online loan, requires user registration).

Australia: Top 100 Singles
The purple block of years has every Top 100 track in Australia since 1950, based on Kent’s Australian Music Report and Aria charts. Indispensable database by Grant Dawe.

Bruce Sergent's New Zealand Music site: 60s, 70s, 80s
The standard reference site for NZ music.

NZ music at AudioCulture
Rich source of information about NZ music, the “noisy library of New Zealand music..; the stories of nearly one hundred years of New Zealand popular music culture”.

NZ sounds from Ian's igJukebox
LISTEN Irresistible selection of New Zealand 45s in mp3 format. [Archived page]

Christchurch and Canterbury NZ: RockHappenz
Comprehensive, user-friendly site about the history of rock in the city of Christchurch and the Canterbury region.

APRA-AMCOS: works search
Search titles of copyrighted Australian composition.

• Go-set: Australian music magazine
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE Australian pop weekly, Feb 1966-Aug 1968 (not the full run: it went till 1974). PDFs at World Radio History. See also:
• Gosetcharts.com: national Go-Set charts 1966-1974 plus other Go-Set resources. Indispensable site by Barry McKay.
• The Go-Set Blog by David M. Kent. See also his Masters Thesis, The place of Go-Set in rock and pop music culture in Australia, 1966-1974.

Trove archive (National Library of Australia)
Essential research site. “Australian and online resources: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more”

• Psychlist: Australian singles 1966-1972
• Psychlist: NZ singles 1966-1972
Selective but useful discographies of Australian and New Zealand 45s. [Archived pages]

Australian Record Labels
Nice collection of Australian label discographies. There are also miscellaneous bonuses including tours 1954-1975 with dates, venues and artists.

Australian labels at Global Dog
Discographies of numerous Australian record labels, familiar and obscure. Part of the essential labels site GlobalDogProductions.net.

Australian Rock Database
Aussie music reference site run by a bloke in Sweden, Magnus Holmgren. [Archived version]

• History of Australian Music from 1960 until 2000
• Women of Aussie Music 1960s -1990s
Two blogs by Kimbo who has collected often hard-to-find information about Australian artists, many of them lesser known.

Ozzie Music Man: rare Australian recordings
DOWNLOADS Rare Australian classics and not so classics. As O.M.M. puts it, these tracks are only collecting cobwebs and will never be released on CD. Downloadable FLAC files.

Australian rock bands 1960s and 1970s (Facebook Group)
The group has thousands of members including fans and people who worked in the music industry. Loads of information, discussion, reminiscences and images to browse.

Sonic Archaeology
Blog by Australian broadcaster and music historian Jordie Kilby. “Explorations in cultural and social history through recorded sound.” Original and informed content from detailed research.

Australian 45rpm Revolution
Jordie Kilby’s detailed history of the 45 rpm single and its introduction into Australia.

I Want, Need, Love You
Opinionated and informed commentary on some interesting Australian records, with label shots.

"The Music Goes Round My Head" (book): Australian pop music 1964-1969
David Johnston’s meticulously researched history is the standard reference on this era. No longer in print, but follow the link to try your luck at AbeBooks for a second-hand copy.

Oz Music Books
Adelaide mail order store selling Australian sheet music, artist biographies, chart books, music histories, reference books, and more. Highly recommended

Australian Chart Books by David Kent
Several volumes of David Kent’s retrospectively compiled Australian charts with some data going back to 1940. The standard sources for historic Australian music trends.

Melbourne: Holy go-go boots, Batman!
Melbourne pop culture in the 60s. Music content includes features on Melbourne bands The Spinning Wheels and The Mystrys.

Ain't Got No Feelin' (Andrew Ainsworth)
Obscure antipodean beat music, from the ‘zine by Brisbane music historian [archived]. Also by Andrew:
Brisbane Scene: Brisbane Rock & Folk Scene of the 1960s
Brisbands: The Magazine of Brisbane musicians of the sixties, archived from the Primitif Sounds website.

Brisbane Music: Oral History
Eyewitness accounts of Brisbane concerts from 1942 to the present: Railroad Gin, Purple Hearts, Bowery Boys, The Saints, Jon Blanchfield plus many other local and overseas artists. [Internet archive version. Some navigation required.]

Brisbane Music Graveyard
LISTEN Lost bands of Brisbane: audio players, info and downloads.

Brisbane: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll... But I Like It.
Doctoral thesis by Geoffrey Walden (QUT 2013) on “the early days of rock ‘n’ roll in Brisbane . . .
as told by some of the people who were there”. [Link opens PDF.]

Western Australia: History of Rock'n'Roll in WA
Long page of articles at Dr Cecilia Netolicky’s Perth Rocks website. Full of interviews, reminiscence and images.

Newcastle [NSW]: Newcastle Bands Database
Unique record, highly recommended for information not found anywhere else.

NZ: The Birth of Kiwi Rock 'n' Roll
Johnny Cooper ‘the Maori cowboy’. Page from NZ History Online [archived].

King & Queen of Pop 1967-1978
Milesago explains Australia’s King of Pop (1967-1978) & Queen of Pop (1973-78), and lists all the winners.

3 Australian TV pop shows (60s)
Three episodes in Classic Old Australian TV Shows, a small collection at the Internet Archive:
#5 Where The Action Is (Johnny O’Keefe) 1967
#8 The Go!! Show (Johnny Young) 1966
#10 Bandstand (Brian Henderson) 1968

Single File by Charles G. Hill
Informed and witty commentary on about 40 singles, archived from the now defunct Chaz’s Music Room website. Follow the internal links at this Internet Archive page for more of Chaz’s writing on music.

Richie Unterberger
Feature-packed website of the prolific music and travel writer, a senior editor at All Music.

PopArchives: The Blog
My repository for writing that doesn’t fit into this site. It’s still mainly about music, but it ranges more widely, into other countries, genres, media and decades.

Dead Wax
Treasure trove of arcane knowledge about obscure artists and records (my description).

West Coast Fog
“Musical Exhumations from California’s Hazy Age” by Erik Bluhm and Paul Gammage. Detailed research, off the beaten track.

Chris Hunt
Features at site of British music journalist.

John Gilliland’s “The Pop Chronicles” (audio)
Renowned radio series of 55 episodes on the history of popular music, first broadcast on KRLA Pasadena, CA. in February 1969. Archived at UNT Digital Library, includes transcriptions.

Wilson & Allroy's Record Reviews
Nice-looking, user-friendly site by two amusing chaps who “listen to the lousy records so you won’t have to.” Yearly reviews 1963-2010 plus artist reviews from the 50s and early 60s.

Only Solitaire: George Starostin's Music Reviews
Thoughtful, well-informed reviews by Russian linguist Georgiy Starostin, covering an impressive range of artists from the rock’n’roll era to the mid-00s.

Dave Marsh's 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made
Searchable database by Lex Jansen from Dave Marsh’s book The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made (1989).

Mclane & Wong
Californian entertainment lawyers’ site includes pop music articles & interviews as a bonus: Norma Tanega, The Buckinghams, New Colony Six…

Rock's Backpages
Extensive rock journalism archive run by Barney Hoskyns. It charges a subscription fee, but the quality is good. (Also one of the working titles for this site till I found it was taken!)

Anorak Thing
Entertaining and educational blog about the side roads and back alleys of recorded music. Established 2008, still active in 2022. I’ve cited it a few times.

KRLA Beat magazine 1964-1968
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE Pop magazine published by legendary Los Angeles area radio station. Site has issues in PDF as well as airchecks and KRLA history.

Bomp! magazine: 1973-1979 selection
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE A few issues of Greg Shaw’s legendary pop zine, initially entitled ‘Who Put The Bomp’. Facsimiles at the Internet Archive.

Ugly Things magazine
Founded in 1983, the magazine’s focus is on “lost, unknown and overlooked music of the 1960s and beyond”. The print edition comes out three times a year, and the website has an archive of articles and reviews.

Vancouver Pop Music
Covering Vancouver Pop Hits from ’56 to ’93, this beautifully presented site has detailed background and commentary on over 1,100 records that charted in Vancouver. This extraordinary project by Ray McGinnis  is not confined to Canadian music, but is rather a treasure trove for pop music fans anywhere in the world.

Way Back Attack
Michael Jack Kirby’s excellent site is packed with information and commentary about 50s & 60s music, including the overexposed, the familiar, the obscure and the totally weird and whacked out.  In other words, irresistible.

Rockin' Country Style
Terry Gordon’s indispensable Discography of Country Rock & Roll and Related Records, 1951-1964. Covers many obscure records unlisted elsewhere.

Brian Lee's Color Radio [Archive]
Brian’s radio program on KVMR-FM has ended, but his unique website lives on. Browse for vital information about lesser known artists and record labels.

Garage Hangover
Superb blog-style site with audio and commentary on numerous garage bands, mainly obscure. I’ve given you the link, get over there now, it’s great.

Probe is Turning-on the People!
DOWNLOADS Phil Milstein’s Probe..! is a unique treasure trove of thematic playlists of historic tracks, many of them rare, obscure or offbeat. It combines a deep knowledge of pop and its fringes with an aficionado’s sense of the absurdity of it all.

The Exotica Project, The Lonely Beat, Nowhere Town and Bluesville Jukebox
LISTEN Over 400 labels with audio of 45 rpm singles from the 50s and 60s, thematically organised with detailed accompanying essays. Beautiful and meticulously presented site by Dan Shimon.
• The Exotica Project: Expanding Exotica beyond its famous exponents: a genre only in retrospect.
• The Lonely Beat: … runs with every cliché and trope of the city
• Nowhere Town: … evoking fanciful notions of bygone small town life and boundless Western horizons.
• Bluesville Jukebox Jazz: … primarily jazz and instrumental R&B of the 1960s

Space Age Pop
Your parents’ old instrumental LPs, now with new cult status! No, seriously: a superb site covering the intricacies of Lounge, Exotica, Jet Set Pop and other sub-genres.
LISTEN For a taste of Space Age see the Selected Tracks page.

Library Music
Comprehensive primer on The World of Library Music (and, no, it’s not music played in libraries). [Archived page]

Cha Cha Charming
Now inactive but archived, a journalistic tribute to girl-powered pop, past, present and future by Sheila B of WFMU’s Sophisticated Boom Boom.

Toytown
A Trip to Toytown, Mark Frumento’s 2007 survey of a retrospectively named sub-genre of “quintessentially English” pop. (I’m guessing it was Mark who isolated and named it.) This is Part 1, with links to Parts 2 & 3. At Marmalade Skies,

Drummer Cafe
Profiles of many drummers and percussionists in the Features section of this specialist site.

American Song-Poem Music Archives
Site by Phil Milstein dedicated to those curious records self-financed by hopeful amateur lyricists responding to magazine ads. Strange and intriguing.
See also: Song-Poems: Songs from the Common Man, article at PBS.

Outsider Music: 'Songs in the Key of Z'
The site promotes Irwin Chusid’s book, but it includes useful links and features including one about ‘The Human Horn’, scat singer Shooby Taylor.

Secret Museum of the Air with Pat Conte and Citizen Kafka
Arcane music history. Archived from a defunct WFMU program 2000-2002

Marmalade Skies
The home of British psychedelia. Includes a feature on Australian psych pop.

Obscure Bands of the 50s & 60s
Solid info on around 40 obscurities (as at Oct 2013).

Cue Castanets
“Musings on Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound and similar music…”

45 RPM Record Label Designs at No Relevance
Album cover art has been, um, well-covered elsewhere, but this is an online exhibit of 45 rpm record label design.

The British Beat Boom
Useful biographies and discographies of numerous artists, some obscure and not found in such detail anywhere else. [Archived version]

What Was the First Rock 'N' Roll Record?
List of 50 possibilities, 1944-1956, from the 1992 book of that name by Jim Dawson & Steve Propes.

Marv Goldberg's R&B Articles at UncaMarvy.com
Learned stuff, lots of artists covered. Much of this you won’t find anywhere else.

Doo-wop Groups & Discography
Personnel and single discographies of numerous Doo-wop groups, updated often. Plenty of obscure groups included at this French blog.

The Vocal Group Harmony Website
Information about the rhythm & blues vocal groups of the 1930s, 1940s & 1950s and their recordings. Also hosts Marv Goldberg’s radio show.

Instromania
Dedicated to instrumental pop all over the world. French website: click on ‘Pays’ (= ‘Countries’) to see what they have on Aussie bands: you’ll be surprised. [Archived version]

Producers by Martin Roberts
Immaculately presented data and commentary on the production work of Jack Nitzsche, Ron Barrett, Irving Martin and The Tokens.

Phil Spector discography at Spectropop: the 45s
See also:
Phil Spector discography at Spectropop: the LPs

The Phil Spector Record Label Library
Comprehensive collection of label and sleeve shots of Phil Spector-produced records. [No longer online: link is to Internet Archive version.]

Jack Nitzsche at Spectropop
All things Nitzsche, and that’s a lot. In-depth treatment of the prolific and influential musician, producer, composer, arranger. Part of the Spectropop website.

Al Kooper
Multi-skilled musical great: think Blonde On Blonde and Blood Sweat & Tears just for starters.

Tony Burrows and associated songwriters
Hiroshi ‘Hoppy’ Asada’s tribute to the career of Britain’s most successful session singer. Also covered are some of the notable songwriters whose works he recorded, including Tony Macaulay and Cook & Greenaway.

Nick Lampe
The life and career of the New York singer-songwriter, as briefly outlined by me in a blog post. (This may be the definitive account.)

Ray Pizzi of The Rondels
Yes, there was Back Beat #1 (1961), but check out the extraordinary career of the Rondels’ sax man Ray Pizzi (1943-2021) [archived site]. See also The Rondels website.

Cliff Richard Song Database
Extraordinary site, clear and user-friendly, that attempts to list and catalog all the known songs ever touched by Cliff Richard spanning his entire career. A model for such sites.

Artie Kornfeld
Writer-producer, arranger, recording artist (The Changin’ Times), Vice President (Rock) at Columbia Records, initiator of Woodstock, friend of PopArchives…

Light music biographies at The Robert Farnon Society
Website of group named after Canadian composer-arranger-conductor, celebrating “Light Music, Easy Listening, Middle-of-the-Road, Mood Music or Concert Music”. See, for example, Norrie Paramor, Cyril Stapleton, John Barry…

The Interlude Era
Webzine dedicated to “Pop Music’s ‘golden decade’ from the fall of the Big bands to the rise of Rock and Roll (1946-1955)” [Archived site]

Masters of Melody
LISTEN British Radio Studio Orchestras, Bands and Ensembles from the 30s to the 60s. From this page you can listen to historic radio programs featuring dance bands and similar music.

Around and Around: record collecting and more
Visually beautiful site by Peter Viney. It is full of information about labels and formats, but this is much more than a dry collectors’ site. Explore the tabs for loads of history and witty, informed commentary: Special areas, Music & artists, Reviled! and Songs & albums

Tim's Phonographs and Old Records
This entertaining and informative site by collector Tim Gracyk at gracyk.com seems to be defunct. The link is to an archived version at the Internet Archive.

The Originals by Arnold Rypens: the updates
This started as an update site for the authoritative reference book The Originals, but the site is now a complete resource in its own right. The original book was in Dutch but there’s now an English edition (available through the site).

Cover.info
Comprehensive database. Redesigned with improved interface [formerly Cover-Versionen]. Promises over 500,000 songs by more than 152,000 artists.

Second Hand Songs: A Cover Songs Database
Uncluttered database lists over 40000 original songs, around 200000 recordings altogether. There are also several active forums.

1st and 2nd Labels at Color Radio
Fascinating pages by Brian Lee with label shots of original issues – often on small, obscure labels – alongside their reissues, often on major labels. Page 1 and Page 2.

Elvis Presley: The Originals
David Neale traces the original versions of about 500 songs recorded by Elvis.

The Originals Project
User-friendly site by Dick Rosemont tracing “the earliest recordings of popular and hit songs”.

Pop Meets the Classics
Site by Ostin Allegro explores pop songs (1955-now) that are based on classical music works. A valuable resource, fascinating to browse, and you’ll probably find some surprises. Highly recommended. [Archived version. The original site was offline September 2017.]

Who Sampled
And who was sampled. I came to this via the handy iPhone app, but they have a website as well. Search from the sampler or the sampled.

The Beatles from Others
Origins of the songs The Beatles released, but didn’t write. List by snellius at Rate Your Music.

The Complete Covers of the songs of the Rolling Stones
Vast list at Nico Zentgraf’s Complete Works Website: The Rolling Stones Database

Francoise Hardy: songs she has covered
Sources of Francoise Hardy’s cover versions, including English-language originals given French lyrics. Scroll up the page to see Francoise Hardy recordings covered by others. [Archived page]

ARSA: Airheads Radio Survey Archive
Charts from radio stations in various US cities, along with examples from other countries including Australia. Late 50s to mid-80s, but mainly in the 60s. Highly recommended.

Cash Box Top 100 Singles archive
Essential reference compiled by Randy Price. [Link is to archived version at Internet Archive.]

Joel Whitburn's top pop singles 1955-2012
Not a website but chart specialist Whitburn’s chart book for Billboard Hot 100 singles 1955-2012. Digitalised version at the Internet Archive.
Other digitalised Whitburn chart books:
• Joel Whitburn’s Bubbling Under the Hot 100, 1959-1985 (#101 to #115 or 136, depending on the year: records that almost made the Hot 100)
• Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles, 1940-1955
• Joel Whitburn’s Top Country Singles: 1944-1993
• Joel Whitburn presents Top R & B singles, 1942-1999
• Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Albums, 1955-2001
• Joel Whitburn’s Pop memories, 1890-1954 (Very early songs, charts calculated using various sources. Introductory pages have discussion and a list of sources.)
Later editions of these books are often available, in print or at Internet Archive.

The World's Music Charts at tsort.info
Huge database site aims to list “all the songs that were major hits 1900-2007”. Many features, take time to explore.

Top 40 Surveys
Nice uncluttered blog collection of radio station surveys, no particular order but good for a browse. 50s to 80s, but seems to be mainly 60s & 70s.

Classic Top 30
Historic charts, mainly 60s-70s, from half a dozen US radio stations.

Canadian chart archive (RPM)
Searchable archive of weekly charts from Canadian magazine RPM, beginning in 1964

Vancouver radio charts
60s radio station surveys from CKWX, CFUN and CKLG. Excellent presentation, highly recommended.

Vancouver Pop Hits from ’56 to ’93
Plenty to explore at this beautifully designed site based around survey data from CJOR, CKWX, CFUN, CKLG and CKVN. At Ray McGinnis’s Vancouver Signature Sounds.

UK Bubbling Under charts (1966 -69)
Record Retailer’s weekly Bubbling Under lists published from April 1966. These extend the already well-known Record Retailer Top 50s that are often used as the standard UK charts for this era. Useful thread at UK Mix forum includes a link to 1970-78 lists.

Radio London Fab Forties
Complete weekly charts of the pirate radio station from January 1965 till August 1967, with entertaining and informative commentary. Part of the Radio London site [radiolondon.co.uk].

Radio Caroline Charts
British pirate station’s charts 1964-1968, now at the Radio London site. Still some gaps: a work in progress. Includes a chronology of the station.

A Half Century of British Number Ones
Site by Mike J. Smith has annotated listings from 1950s to 2000s, and a great collection of links.

The Irish charts
Eire charts from 1962.

French Charts + links to other countries
Find other countries via the dropdown menu at top right, autres pays (other countries). Many European countries are included, plus Australia.

Charts-Surfer
German site allows search of charts from several countries (individually or all at once) going back to the 50s.

South African Charts at SA Rock Lists
Some SA chart statistics from 1958 to 1989.

South Africa: SA Singles Charts
Beautifully designed site with weekly South African charts 1965-1989 and an informative blog about charting artists.

World Music Charts by Carl Mesecher
Portal to current charts from numerous countries, plus the World Music Charts podcast and a blog, The Beat. See also Carl’s three #1 Singles books covering Australia, Canada, USA and UK in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Australian charts from Go-Set Magazine 1966-1974
National charts published at the time by teen music weekly Go-Set. All the weekly singles and album charts, end-of-year charts, plus other statistics and features. A unique resource compiled by Barry McKay.

Australia: Top 100 Singles
Go down to the third, purple block of years to look up every song that has charted Top 100 in Australia since 1950. It uses David Kent’s Australian Music Report charts for early years then official Aria charts. Indispensable database by Grant Dawe.

Australian Chart History
[Offline; link to archived page]. Research project by Daniel Lowe, who once worked for the Australian Music Report. This is the definitive history of Australian charts and their sources, from radio station playlists (and “the opinion of the individual music director of the radio station”) to the hard sales figures used today.

NZ: Lever Hit Parades 1960-1965
Top 8 used on commercial radio, based on some kind of listener survey. Weekly charts, searchable, at Flavour of New Zealand

NZ: Listener Magazine charts (1966-1970)
Another NZ poll-based chart which preceded the use of sales figures from 1970. Weekly charts, searchable, at Flavour of New Zealand.

Label discographies (45s) at Global Dog Productions
As well as US labels, includes sections on Australian, Canadian and British labels. Indispensable.
Now restored at .net, replacing the defunct .org site.

Vinyl label histories and LP discographies at cvinyl.com
Rich resource for collectors and researchers. Beautiful, clear site.

Both Sides Now: label discographies and histories
Extensive coverage of albums from numerous US labels. Singles discographies are an exception but there are a few here as well.

Small Independent Rockin' 45rpm Labels
Label shots, discographies and other details about dozens of obscure US labels. Some of them recorded tracks that became hits on bigger labels: read about Ned Miller on Fabor, for example. Blog by Apes Ville.

Independent label discographies at Fotorama
Huge collection at Czech site by Zdenek Rada and Milan Kidoň. The site is a legacy of their single-edition collectors’ magazine Fotorama (1992). Extraordinary site with an interesting history.

Labels at non-mainstream music site Grunnen Rocks
Nearly 3½ thousand labels with selective discographies around garagerock, punk, trashblues … mostly non-mainstream music. Melbourne’s Corduroy is included: see also here.

Soul labels at Soulful Kinda Music
Over 150 soul-oriented labels listed.

Rockin' Country Style: Label Listings
Label discographies for “Country Rock & Roll and Related Records, 1951-1964”. Many of these companies were small, obscure regional operations.

Brian Lee's Color Radio: Cat, Debra and Domino label shots
Just one feature of Brian’s unique site: click on LABELS. While you’re there, don’t miss the “1st & 2nd Labels” pages, further down the list.

78 rpm label index by Michael Thomas
Illustrated A-Z of labels with commentary and sample label shots. Meticulously researched, many details you won’t find anywhere else.

Online Discographies Project
Label discographies of 78s created by discographer Steven Abrams with Tyrone Settlemier.

The American Record Label Book From the 19th Century Through 1942
Brian Rust’s detailed book of label histories is enhanced by beautifully rendered images. Digitised copy at Internet Archive.

Australian record labels
Nice collection of Australian label discographies. There are some bonuses including details of notable tours 1954-1975

Australian label histories at MilesAgo
Well-researched accounts of numerous local labels, from the famous to the obscure (Pakktel?).

British labels at Dragon
Almost complete discographies for several labels including HMV, Apple, Deram and Top Rank, plus EP lists for four labels. [Archived]

Eastalgia.com: Soviet-era Eastern European Labels
Album discographies, most of which you won’t find anywhere else. Site by Valdas Bytautas in Lithuania. [Archived site]

South African labels at SA Rock Lists
Includes South African RCA, Immediate, Fontana, Pye, Rave.

Northeastern Record Labels at Paisleyhaze.com.
Valuable project that documents independent labels from the USA’s Northeast, including New York City and suburbs. [Archived]

Detroit labels at Seabear Studios.
Label shots and discographies of numerous labels, including Motown and its subsidiaries. Excellent site by L.G. Nilsson.

Mercury
Site by Matsubayashi ‘Shaolin’ Kohji, packed with information about Mercury Records, much of it based on the web owner’s collection.

Record Company Addresses In London
List at 45cat.com by zabadak. The addresses of 450 British labels over several decades, as shown on record sleeves. As the compiler says, “Most probably long gone…” but a fascinating concept anyway.

The Hit Records Project
Discography and notes for famous Nashville cheapo label Hit, including discography. [Archived version]

Levy's Sound Studios
Bill Johnson’s memoir of his days at the studios that produced the Embassy soundalike budget singles [archived page].

Tony Rivers on Top of the Pops
British musician recalls his days recording soundalikes of current hits for the Top of the Pops series. [Internet Archive version]

My blog posts on budget labels
Not the definitive source, but you’ll find some links for further reading. Includes infoemation about Golden Fleece, the Australian budget label sold through service stations.

Herbert Hunter/Leroy Jones
Discography at Soulful Kinda Music of singer who covered soul tracks for Nashville budget label Hit.

Johnny Worth (Les Vandyke) single on Embassy
[Scroll right down the page.] Renowned British songwriter who recorded a single for Embassy. Page at www.45rpm.co.uk includes bio and label shot.

Soul sides on Hit and Spar
Post by Jeff Lemlich at Bomp Digest. [Internet Archive version]

Budget cover versions by Elton John 1969-70
“Chartbusters Go Pop!” (2001), the CD reissue of budget soundalike tracks recorded pseudonymously by Elton John 1969-70.
At All Music. with review by Richie Unterberger.

Songwriters Hall of Fame
US site. This link is to the Explore page, a springboard to bios and songlists of numerous songwriters.

Songwriters at Magic Town
Site by Hiroto Yanagida with discographies for songwriters Barry Mann, Jimmy Webb, Van Dyke Parks, Mark James and Brian Wilson.

Songwriters at the R.N.Shrout Website
Song lists for numerous songwriters, plus other music history. (“R.N.Shrout” is a pseudonym, explained at the site.)

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
Browse the A-Z of inductees at this page.

Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters
Dozens of archived podcasts featuring interviews with songwriters from various eras & genres, including many major names.

Songwriting Magazine
Website of the print magazine covers a range of genres, decades and countries. Aimed at songwriters, but much of interest for the general reader, especially the “How I Wrote…” series.

Anders & Poncia as songwriters
List of songs written by producer-musicians Peter Anders & Vini Poncia. List compiled by Mike Edwards at peteranders.net. Explore the whole site for biographies, timeline, discography and sessionographies.

Burt Bacharach
Discography at a Bacharach fansite, A House Is Not a Homepage, at BacharachOnline.com

Hal David
Song lists at HalDavid.com. Follow links to comprehensive repertoire and discography of lyricist best known for his collaboration with Burt Bacharach.

Jeff Barry
‘Jeff Barry Song Database’: a sparkly list of songs by Jeff Barry, songwriting great and partner of Ellie Greenwich (1st page of 2: check out the rest of the site for more Jeff Barry resources).

John Barry
Unofficial site dedicated to the British film composer.

Bert Berns (aka Bert Russell)
Check out the discography and other resources for this giant amongst producers and songwriters to see the extent of his work: “Here Comes The Night”, “Hang On Sloopy”, “Twist And Shout”… the tip of a spectacular iceberg.

The Bee Gees [1]
‘Gibb Songs’, Joseph Brennan’s invaluable site, has chronologically arranged and annotated discographies of songs recorded or composed by The Bee Gees, including unreleased sessions and ‘songs the Bee Gees gave away’.

The Bee Gees [2]
‘1030 Songs Written by The Bee Gees’ Aims to list every Bee Gees composition. Page at the Bee Gees Rarities website. A continual work in progress, it has expanded every time I check back, and 1030 was the total by January 2019.

The Bee Gees [3]: Songs The Bee Gees Gave Away
Five songs, at this site, written by Bee Gees for Australian artists but not released by The Bee Gees at that time. (Site search results.)

Bonner & Gordon
For a start, how about… ‘Happy Together’, ‘She’d Rather Be With Me’, ‘She’s My Girl’ for The Turtles and ‘Cat In The Window’ for Petula Clark? [Archived version.]

Bob Crewe
‘Songs written by Bob Crewe’, at MusicVF.com, showing chart positions, label and co-writers.

Jackie DeShannon
Peter Lerner’s list of Jackie’s compositions showing who recorded them.

Graham Gouldman
‘Graham Gouldman Things’, a site by John Bruinsma devoted to the 10 CC member and ubiquitous 60s songwriter (‘You Stole My Love’, ‘No Milk Today’, ‘Heartful Of Soul’, ‘For Your Love’, ‘Bus Stop’…) [Archived]

Tony Hatch song list
From the defunct site of the British songwriter, arranger and producer [archived page].

Dick Holler
He wrote ‘Snoopy vs The Red Baron’ and ‘Abraham, Martin & John’. True! Official site.

Mick Jagger & Keith Richard: songs they 'gave away'

Carole King
Song list at CaroleKing.com.

Leiber & Stoller
Song list, now offline: this is the Internet Archive version.

John D. Loudermilk
The definitive Loudermilk site by Kees van der Hoeven at ihesm.com. Everything you’ll ever want to know about the legendary singer and songwriter. A list of 160 versions of “Tobacco Road”? No problem!

Tony Macaulay, Cook & Greenaway, John Carter, and AMMO (Arnold, Martin & Morrow)
Comprehensive song lists for these prolific British songwriters. An essential resource compiled by the legendary Hiroshi ‘Hoppy’ Asado.

Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil
Song list at the official site of the major songwriting partnership, Mann-Weil.com.

Johnny Mercer Song Database
Extraordinary database of “almost 1,400 published and unpublished songs with lyrics and/or music written by Johnny Mercer (1909-1976)”. At the Georgia State University Library’s webpages.

P. F. Sloan
‘The P. F. Sloan Website’, by David Ridges, about the legendary singer-songwriter-poet-etc. All the discographies, related information, and lots of P. F. Sloan’s own words.

Sloan and Barri list
List by dogear at 45Cat.com of over 150 records with writing, production or performances by P.F. Sloan & Steve Barri. Each entry is linked to its 45cat page with label shots and discographical details..

Carl Sigman
‘MajorSongs: The Songs of Carl Sigman’: Site devoted to the works of celebrated lyricist (and sometimes composer) Carl Sigman. He wrote the words to ‘What Now My Love’, You’re My World’, ‘Answer Me’ and ‘Ebb Tide’, for example.

Vanda & Young
Discography by Magnus Holmgren at his Australian rock database [archived page at Internet Archive]

Vanda & Young index
Links to comprehensive Harry Vanda & George Young discographies. This covers their songwriting, production and performances, including The Easybeats. Compiled by Jonas Warstad at discog.info.

Artie Wayne
‘Artie Wayne on the Web’, a wide-ranging and informative blog by songwriter, producer and singer (1942-2019), a friend of this website since its earliest years. He is best-known in Australia for ‘4,003,221 Tears From Now’ (Judy Stone), ‘From The Inside’ (Marcia Hines) and ‘Go To Him’ (Ray Brown).

The Encyclopedia of Rock (1997)
Phil Hardy & Dave Laing: Enlarged edition of the handy 3-volume work: The Age of Rock’n’Roll, From Liverpool to San Francisco, and The Sounds of the Seventies (1976).

The Tapestry of Delights (1996)
Vernon Joynson: This  classic reference work, since updated further (2014), lists many artists and details you won’t find anywhere else. As the full title says, it is a comprehensive guide to British music of the beat, R & B, psychedelic and progressive eras, 1963-1976.

The Almost Complete 78 rpm Record Dating Guide (1992)
Steven C. Barr: Indispensable reference work establishes date ranges of 78s on hundreds of labels in US, Britain & Canada. Extraordinary research work, now out of print.

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Vols I-VIII (1998)
Colin Larkin: Third edition of the mammoth reference work, from A Band of Angels to Zee Zee Top in 8 volumes. Link is to Volume I, scroll down for the others.

The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (1999)
Ian McFarlane: The standard, authoritative reference book.

The Essential Rock Discography (2006)
Martin C. Strong: Artist biographies and detailed discographies in a condensed and updated edition of the famous Great Rock Discography, following on from its 7th edition (2004).

The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (2001)
Holly George-Warren and Patricia Romanowski (Eds): Third edition of this solid reference book with almost 2,000 entries focusing on significant artists up until the year of publication.

The Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles (1981)
Jo & Tim Rice, Paul Gambaccini, Mike Read: Excellent British chart book for 1952 to 1980. The upper limit seems to be #75. For the period, this is like your British Joel Whitburn or Gavin Ryan.

Brian Rust
Jazz discographies and other works by Brian Rust (1922-2011). He was the expert and his books are indispensable.
Link is to Internet Archive search for “brian rust’. Some direct links:
• The Columbia Master Book Directory Volume I  (Vols II-IV also there)
• The complete entertainment discography, from the mid-1890s to 1942
• Jazz records, 1897-1942 Volume 1, Volume 2

Joel Whitburn's top pop singles 1955-2002 (Top 100s)
Chart specialist Whitburn’s chart book for Billboard Hot 100 singles 1955-2002.
Other digitalised Whitburn chart books:
• Joel Whitburn’s Bubbling Under the Hot 100, 1959-1985 (#101 to #115 or 136, depending on the year: records that almost made the Hot 100)
• Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles, 1940-1955
• Joel Whitburn’s Top Country Singles: 1944-1993
• Joel Whitburn presents Top R & B singles, 1942-1999
• Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Albums, 1955-2001
• Joel Whitburn’s Pop memories, 1890-1954 (Very early songs, charts calculated using various sources. Introductory pages have discussion and a list of sources.)
Later editions of these books are often available, in print or at Internet Archive.

Birmingham & West Midlands 60s: Brum Beat
See the Main Index for such Birmingham area bands as The Move, The Uglys (“Wake Up My Mind”), The Applejacks and The Senators (“She’s A Mod”).

Bournemouth Beat Boom
The Bournemouth area was no Liverpool or Manchester but it produced its share of local bands as well as musicians who moved on to the big city. No Beatles or Animals, but how about Zoot Money, Robert Fripp, Andy Somers..? Well researched and written, and a pleasure to read.

ManchesterBeat
This has the Manchester scene well covered, from the early 60s on.

Newcastle [UK], North East England: Ready Steady Gone
“Gigging in the North East 1965-1972”, a Blog style site by Roger Smith who was there as a musician. Priceless anecdotes and history of working bands in and around Newcastle.

Newcastle [UK], North East England: Vintage Sixties Live
Fascinating scrap-book style site with photos, clippings, gig posters and other memorabilia connected with the numerous working bands of Newcastle and beyond, most of them obscure beyond that area.

Baltimore: Where Are They Now?
Ronnie Dove, Peppermint Rainbow, The Orioles and others. Feature in Baltimore Style.

Buffalo-Niagara region of Western New York: WNY.FM
In its own words: WNY.FM is a virtual museum of the music culture of the Buffalo/Niagara region of Western New York State. Vibrant, informative site.

Chicago: historic labels and artists at the Red Saunders Research Foundation
Histories and discographies for over twenty Chicago labels, focusing on post-war jazz, R&B and blues. From the homepage, click through to full label pages. There is also an artists index.

Detroit labels
Label shots and discographies of numerous labels, including Motown and its subsidiaries. Excellent site by L.G. Nilsson.

Detroit: Don't Forget The Motor City
Extensive, indispensable discography and sessionography of Motown and related labels of Berry Gordy.

Phoenix AZ: Photo Flashbacks
The Doug Hartley Collection: “Rare performance photos of the Rock and Roll music scene in the Phoenix, Arizona area during the late 1960s”

Rochester NY: Music Hall of Fame

California: West Coast Fog
“Musical Exhumations from California’s Hazy Age” by Erik Bluhm and Paul Gammage. Detailed research, off the beaten track.

Georgia Music Hall of Fame
List of 163 musicians inducted into the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame. Many worldwide household names: Otis Redding, Gladys Knight, James Brown, Ray Charles, Brenda Lee…

Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame
Discussions on mainly traditional Hawaiian music topics.

Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
Let’s see… Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Guy, Mahalia Jackson, Pete Fountain, Dale & Grace, Fats Domino, Dale Hawkins, Clarence Henry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Johnny Rivers, Percy Sledge, Irma Thomas, John Fred…

Ohio: Buckeye Beat
Covers rock’n’roll, r&b, soul and country 1950-1979+ with lots of details about  artists, labels, radio, venues and more.

Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame
How about Freddie Scott, The Tavares, The Cowsills, Anders & Poncia for starters?

Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame

New England [USA]: MMONE
The Music Museum Of New England, a virtual museum focusing on the musical legacy of New England. User-friendly and useful.

Northeastern Record Labels [archived from Paisleyhaze.com]
Documenting independent labels from the USA’s Northeast, including New York City and suburbs. [Archived at Internet Archive.]

Belgium: Memoire 60-70.be
The epic of rock as seen from Belgium: L’épopée Du Rock Vu De Belgique. Content-rich and generously illustrated.

Canada: "Encyclopedia of Canadian rock, pop & folk music" (1994)
Online facsimile for borrowing at Internet Archive (registration & log-in required).

Canada: CMRRA
Repertoire search at Canadian music licensing agency.

Eastern Europe: Soviet-era Labels
Eastalgia.com, a site by Valdas Bytautas from Lithuania featuring pop albums on several Eastern European labels, many from the 70s and 80s. [Archived version]

Europe: ReadySteadyGirls.eu
“Girl” singers and groups from Britain, France, Germany & Italy. (Yes, I realise that Europe isn’t a country.)

France and elsewhere: The Ye-ye Girls Website
Defunct site, archived at Internet Archive. Includes Tor Midtskog’s “French Pop: Goldmine of Style”.

France: 45 tours de rock francais
45 rpm French rock: defunct discography site still accessible at Internet Archive. Seems to be quite functional.

France: Bide et Musique
Web radio site works as a kind of French Discogs.com, with release details of French discs.

France: EncyclopeDisque
Encyclopedia of French 45s. Standard reference site. The 45Cat of France?

France: l'Univers Musique
Extensive music-related archives of France’s national library, the Bibliotheque nationale de France

France: Releases in France by non-French artists at 45VinylVidiVici
Singles and EPs released in France by non-French artists 1954 to 2018. Try 1956-1975, for example. Unique site has many discographies and features to explore.

France: SACEM repertoire search
La Sacem is the French copyright and royalties organisation, equivalent to BMI or ASCAP in the US, APRA in Australia. SACEM = Societe des auteurs, compositeurs et editeurs de musique

France: Songwriters
Biographies and discographies for over sixty French composers and lyricists at Les Auteurs et Compositeurs de la Chanson Francaise

Ireland (Eire): The Irish Charts
Irish Recorded Music Association site covers the charts in Eire from 1962. Searchable, nice site.

Ireland: Irish Showbands
Focuses on the Irish showband era of the 50s and 60s: “largest digital showband archive in the world”.

Ireland: IrishRock.org
Irish groups of the 60s & 70s, Irish punk & new wave…

Italy: Hit Parade Italia
Organised around chart data, but good background on artists and songs is included.

Netherlands: Alex Gitlin's Nederpop Encyclopedia
You may know more of these artists than you realise: try Shocking Pink, Golden Earring, George Baker Selection, Tee Set and, er… Stars on 45.

Sweden: Svensk pophistoria
Nice-looking site by Stefan Joveslou with histories of 25 Swedish bands from the 60s.

South Africa: SA Rock Encyclopedia
At rock.co.za, first port of call for comprehensive treatment of South African pop history. Formerly called SA Rock Files.

South Africa: SA's Rock Lists
Part of rock.co.za but deserves a link of its own. Includes charts, discographies, trivia. Essential resource for South African recording history.

Yugoslavia: Jugobeat
Yugoslavian punk and beat site. [No longer online: link to archived version]

• Australia & NZ: APRA AMCOS
• Canada: CMRRA
• France: SACEM
• Germany: GEMA
• Italy: SIAE
• Netherlands: BumaStemra
• UK: PPL The joint website for PRS and MCPS needs professional membership for database access.
• USA: BMI and ASCAP Joint database at Songview.
• USA: SESAC
• USA: US Copyright Office For works from before 1978 see Catalogs of Copyright Entries.

American Radio History
Scans of thousands of magazines and books to do with the broadcasting and recorded music industries. Massive, invaluable resource by David Gleason.

Pirate Radio Hall of Fame
Numerous profiles of the 60s pirate deejays, most with audio clips. A surprising number of them came to the UK from Australian commercial radio.

Radio London
Web home of 60s pirate radio station, including links to other pirates and the Radio London Fab 40 charts from the 60s.

Hans Knot's Kaleidoscope of Offshore Radio
Feature-packed site on offshore (aka pirate) radio. In English and Dutch.

Jingles: audio at Norman Barrington's Radio Pages
Take time to browse, many gems lurking here. At this page, click on the orange boxes to view audio links.

The Radio Antenna: Australian airchecks
Blog with airchecks of Australian radio stations from several decades, along with commentary and other Australian radio features.

The Listener-In: vintage Australian airchecks
My blog that collects links to sites with airchecks (recordings) from Australian AM radio stations of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

5KA Adelaide Airchecks (archived site at Pandora)
Audio clips from the 50s, 60s and 70s, featuring many well-known announcers recorded on air.

Rock Radio Scrapbook: Canada & USA airchecks
Audio and history from Canadian and US stations of the golden age of Top 40 radio.

KCRJ Jerome AZ (1928-1944)

KRLA Los Angeles
KRLA history, airchecks and jingles are included in a site that showcases the station’s 1960s pop magazine The Beat.

KTKT Tucson AZ
Station history

WABC New York
Content-packed tribute to NY Top 40 station. Includes the weekly Top 40 surveys (charts) 1960-1982 and pages of jingles with audio.

WMCA airchecks from the 60s
Listen to the deejays on Good Guy radio at its peak, from major New York Top 40 station.

BBC: historic program index
As the banner says: Discover 11,128,835 listings and 293,945 playable programmes from the BBC (numbers to July 2024). This is a useful resource that goes back to the earliest days of the British Broadcasting Company in 1922.

Voices of Australian Radio (1967/8)
My blogpost with sample pages from the Voices of Australian Radio, an almanac of radio stations and their announcers.

Australian Radio Callsigns: Hidden Meanings
They’re not all hidden: 3SH Swan Hill is fairly obvious, but what about 2SM or 3DB? [Internet Archive link]

Australian A.M. Radio History
Treasure trove of Australian radio history, data and anecdotes. Site by Bruce Carty includes a free downloadable ebook.

Australian Radio History
Featuring the Australian Radio Remembrance and Memorial Page.

Historical Australian radio publications
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE The Australian section of American Radio History’s vast collection.

"Good Guys and Godbotherers: The 3AK Story" by Ash Long
Complete text of a history of Melbourne radio station 3AK from foundation to 70th anniversary in 2001. You may remember The Good Guys and the Where No Wrinklys Fly slogan.

Aussie pirate DJ Ian Damon
On Radio London he was Ian Damon (“The Wombat”), but on 2RG Griffith and 2LF Young he had used his real name, Ian Davidson. The glimpses of country radio in the 50s and 60s are a highlight, and the airchecks from 2LF in 1961 are a rare treat.

Memoirs of 42 Years in Radio at Frank Avis's blog
Frank Avis started on-air at 2MG Mudgee in the 1950s, and was with 2DAY-FM in the 80s and 90s. It is well worth browsing his blog for the posts that make up his memoirs.

John Pearce: 'For The Love Of Mike'
Memoir of Australian radio by John Pearce. Lots of great stories about his early days in radio at stations that included 2QN Deniliquin and 3SH Swan Hill. [Archived]

Alan Freed
The original rock’n’roll disc jockey. A highlight is the archives section, with .pdf files of complete programs from Freed’s live shows.

Radio Use Only
Vinyl radio station compilations and singles – records distributed by stations to promote the station, disc jockeys, and/or local bands. [Navigate on the graphic of a car radio.]

Australian Old Time Radio
Treasure trove of historic audio and written content curated by Ian Grieve.

Radio Heritage: NZ, Australian and world radio history
Radio history site has many features focusing mainly on New Zealand and Australia. It is well worth a browse via the Master Index.

Spinning Indie
“Musings about college radio and independent music.”

United States Early Radio History
Comprehensive site by Thomas H. White covers 1897 to 1927.

Old Time Radio Downloads
“Free Old Radio Shows in MP3”: original audio, 1920-1962

Microphones
Not just radio, but historic microphones in loving close-up and in context.

Steven C. Barr, The Almost Complete 78 rpm Record Dating Guide (1992)
Indispensable reference work establishes date ranges of 78s on hundreds of labels in US, Britain & Canada. Extraordinary research work, now out of print, digitised at Internet Archive.

Online Discographies Project
Label discographies of 78s created by discographer Steven Abrams with Tyrone Settlemier.

78 rpm label index by Michael Thomas
Illustrated A-Z of labels with commentary and sample label shots. Meticulously researched, many details you won’t find anywhere else.

Discography of American Historical Recordings
Or DAHR. Detailed discographic information about historic recordings. In its own words, a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. From the University of California, Santa Barbara, Library.

Cylinder Preservation and Digitalization Project
Website of the University of California at Santa Barbara has details and audio files on cylinder releases.

Cylinders of the Columbia Phonograph Company
Two-Minute Brown Wax and XP Cylinder Records of the Columbia Phonograph Company by Kenneth M. Lorenz (1981). Numerical catalogue covers releases from August 1896 to c. March 1909. Digitised copy at the Internet Archive.

Columbia Recording Artists of the 1890s
Biographies of artists from the early years of sound recordings. Directory by Tim Brooks, PDF at the website of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.

Peter Stone's 78s label gallery
Solid information about numerous labels. Archived page from the defunct website of collector and seller of 78s.

Tim's Phonographs and Old Records
This entertaining and informative site by collector Tim Gracyk at gracyk.com seems to be defunct. The link is to an archived version at the Internet Archive.

Talking Machine Review 1969-1995
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE Magazine for enthusiasts of old records and the machines that played them. Facsimile editions at Internet Archive.

International Discophile 1955-1960
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE Four editions of “record collectors quarterly”. Facsimiles at Internet Archive.

Record Research 1955-1989
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE Magazine of discographical research and related topics. Facsimile editions at Internet Archive.

Hillandale News 1964-2001
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE Magazine of the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society. Facsimile editions at Internet Archive.

Dismuke's 78 RPM Blog
LISTEN Vintage 78 rpm recordings from the early 1900s.

Cylinders at University of California, Santa Barbara
LISTEN Digital collection of more than 10,000 cylinder recordings … from the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Trove: Australian Newspapers 1803-1954
Facsimiles of selected Australian newspapers from the National Library of Australia. Free.

Papers Past (NZ)
A selection of newspapers from all parts of New Zealand, 1839 to 1989. Digitised collection from National Library of New Zealand. Free.

• Newspapers.com
• Newspaper Archive
Newspapers.com and newspaperarchive.com are huge subscriber-only collections of mainly US newspapers although both have some Australian and British papers. Not cheap but having at least one is essential, for my research anyway.

Google Newspaper archive

LIFE magazine 1936-1972
MAGAZINE ARCHIVE Complete digitised archive of the influential US weekly at Google Books. Check Search all issues before searching.

Chronicling America
Searchable facsimiles of selected historical newspapers from several US states. From Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Humanities. Free.

Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Heaven
Wide-ranging artist bios + mp3s, lots of lesser-known stuff. Soul heaven indeed.

• Soul Detective
• The B side
• The A Side
Three superb mp3 blogs by Red Kelly, featuring the more obscure corners of soul. Treasure troves of great music and informed commentary.

Soulful Kinda Music
Web presence of the British print magazine includes over 400 artist discographies and over 150 label discographies.

Soulwalking
British soul site packed with features, including over 1,000 artist biographies. Well worth browsing.

Soul Records: Australian Releases
Releases of soul records on Aussie labels such as W&G, Astor and Festival. Follow the links to other categories.

Soul Source
Forums and many other resources. Give it a browse.

Don't Forget The Motor City
Extensive, indispensable discography and sessionography of Motown and related labels of Berry Gordy.

Soulful Detroit
Excellent Northern Soul site with focus on Detroit, including an active forum and general Northern Soul background stories.

Rare and Northern Soul singles at NorthernSoul45s.co.uk
A feature of this site is the clear, readable label shots and the audio samples.

Blues and soul biographies from Shades of Blue
Archived site, a personal commentary on the great blues and authentic soul music produced from the 1940s to the present day. Look under Categories for more content.

Loma Records discography
Complete discography of Los Angeles label, 1964-1969: ” ‘uptown’ soul, blues, R&B, and popular music subsidiary of Warner Brothers.”

Country Music discographies
Site by Petr Vitous has discographies (albums and singles) as well as biographies, lyrics and sleeve shots, covering numerous Country artists.

• Prague Frank's country sessionographies & discographies Part 1
• Part 2 is here: make sure to search at both locations
Prague Frank has done an extraordinary job in putting this huge database together. The sessionographies alone make it an essential source for the researcher. Many country artists are included, both famous and obscure.  It uses the Blogspot-Blogger.com interface, so scroll down in the side bar to see the list of artists.

Rockin' Country Style
Terry Gordon’s indispensable Discography of Country Rock & Roll and Related Records, 1951-1964. Covers many obscure records unlisted elsewhere, many with audio clips and label shots.

HillbillyMusic.com
You want obscure..?

History of Country Music
Primer at Roughstock.com [archived pages].

History of Alt Country
Jeff Wall: “Alt Country ain’t new… It was happening back in the late 30s.”

Joe Sixpack's Incomplete Guide to Alternative Country
Album reviews, part of Slipcue.com by San Francisco Bay Area DJ & writer

Discographie Rock 'N' Country
French site has loads of data on rock’n’roll, rockabilly and country artists (over 9,000 artists covered by March 2018). Site by Gerard ‘Rocky’ Lambert.
In recent weeks (Nov 2023) I have had warnings about the security of this site.
It could just be that my anti-malware program is over-sensitive. Let me know if you know more.

The Big Bands Database (temporary?) Home Page
Parts of this defunct site are now parked at Folk Library

Jazz Standards
Background and analysis of songs from the golden age of songwriting.

100 Essential Jazz Albums
List at ‘The New Yorker’ by David Remnick

The Dozens at Jazz.com
Lists of 12 key tracks by an artist or around a theme, with commentary and ratings.

Jazz Archive at RainerJazz.com
Databases, discographies, collectors’ resources, articles, and much more. “Dedicated to the history of jazz and its research.”

JazzDiscography.com
Excellent discography site showing “detailed session listings, …index of compositions performed, an index of issues, and an index of musicians.”

Jazz Age 20s
Jazz of the 1920s in original biographies, rare photos, and audio files.

Classic Jazz Online
Tens of thousands of tracks from early twentieth century jazz, many digitised from rare discs. Listen or download (mp3).

Mudcat Cafe
Huge folk music resource includes a well-informed forum and other resources.

Max Hunter Folk Song Collection
LISTEN Almost 1600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded between 1956 and 1976.

African American Spiritual and Gospel Music
History by Michael Tanner. Click through to Flowchart showing influences on secular genres. [Archived]

DM's Beatles Site
Highly recommended.

Beatles Music History by Dave Rybaczewski
The in-depth story behind the songs of the Beatles. Informed discussion and background of Beatles songs and albums (US releases). Lots of treasure here.

Songs The Beatles Didn't Do by Joseph Brennan
Defined as songs they wrote while the Beatles existed, but which did not appear on official EMI Beatles records. 

• The Beatles from Others
• The Beatles for Others (The Giveaways)
Illustrated lists by snellius at Rate Your Music. The first is songs covered by The Beatles, the second is songs written but not recorded by The Beatles.

Beatles at 78 rpm
In some countries, Beatles singles were issued on 78. Fascinating collectors’ corner at cool78s.com

Beatles Discography (UK & USA) at NNNB

Beatles Songs: Index to Wikipedia articles

Mudcat Discussion Forum
Learned discussion on folk/traditional music at Mudcat Cafe

Steve Hoffman Music Forums: Music Corner
One of several media-related forums at the site of notable audio engineer Steve Hoffman. The standard is good and I have often ended up there while searching for some detail.

Whirligig forums at tapatalk.com: 50s Music
Surprises to be found here. Look out for threads on obscure British labels, for example.

Rock'n'Roll Schallplatten (vinyl forum)
At this German forum about vinyl records you will often find informed discussion that throws up details everyone else missed. It’s in German, but online translation tools are pretty good these days.

Second Hand Songs Forum
Discussion boards at the cover version site.

UKMIX Forums
“UK’s online music community”. Check out the Chart Analysis forum in particular.

Lost Bands of the New Wave Era

Rock On Vinyl

Said the Gramophone

Music You (Probably) Won't Hear Anywhere Else

Boogie Woogie Flu

Songs that Made It Big in Oz by Tom Mix

Ace Records Podcast with Pete Paphides
Guests of UK music journalist Pete Paphides tend to be producers, songwriters, and musicians, but well-informed fans from other fields also appear.
• Also at Apple Podcasts or search your own podcast app for “ace records podcast“.

Michael Shelley's podcast from WFMU
From the singer-songwriter-broadcaster’s radio show on WFMU. Shelley is a well-informed and skillful interviewer. He hosts an eclectic range of music people with the focus on rock and pop from the 1950s on.
• Also at Apple Podcasts or search your own podcast app for “michael shelley“.

Larry Grogan's Funky16Corners Radio Network 
Collector, broadcaster and blogger Grogan is a playlist maestro. He consistently reveals long-buried treasure on his three radio shows on WFMU.

Funky16Corners Radio Show podcast: the sounds and stories of vintage funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl.
• Also at Apple Podcasts or search your own podcast app for “funky16corners”.

Iron Leg Radio podcast: the sounds of the 1960s Pop revolution, featuring many lost gems.
• Also at Apple Podcasts or search your own podcast app for “ironlegradio”.

Testify! archive: Eclectic mixes from the twilight of the 1950s to the dawn of the 1970s.
• See archive at WFMU for audio and playlists. (This doesn’t seem to be appearing as a podcast now. – Dec 2022.)

Gulch Radio from Jerome, Arizona
Around Jerome, tune in to KZRJ-LP at 100.5 FM. Elsewhere, stream at gulchradio.com or on a radio app. My favourite radio station, with eclectic playlists and a variety of specialty programs.

UnderCurrents with Gregg McVicar
“American music with a passport” Listen from the website, also syndicated to 30 stations including Gulch Radio.

MVYradio podcasts
Try the excellent “Blues at 8”, for example.

Radio Paradise
Online radio station with terrific eclectic playlist. Highly recommended.

Louie Louie

The Popcorn Song

American Pie

Classical Gas

Radar Love

A Whiter Shade Of Pale
The site is defunct, but here’s the archived page listing 255 versions.

Hey Joe
Originally at heyjoe.org, now a blog. 1800 versions listed to date (early 2017)

Similar-Sounding Songs
Lists and commentary by Thomas Irvin. [Archived version at Internet Archive]

Disturbingly Similar Songs
List of soundalikes with mp3s. [Archived version at Internet Archive]

UCLA Music Copyright Infringement Resource.
Extensive scholarly resource, including accounts of cases over many years. (You’ll find Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music here, for example.)

Oasis Magpie
Page about Oasis songs and the songs they sound like. No longer online, but archived here at Internet Archive.

SongMeanings
I don’t usually recommend lyrics sites (it’s better just to use Google) but this one’s different: no junk, easy to read, and it’s also a forum for commenting on and discussing lyrics.

Downloadable lyrics database from Black Cat Rockabilly
Download a database of 3,358 song lyrics from the defunct Black Cat Rockabilly website (3.52 MB, zipped). When the files are extracted they will open in your browser for easy navigation. Emphasis is on rock’n’roll, 50s to early 60s, with many rarities.

Hiss & Crackle
AUSTRALIA New or used vinyl, CDs and cassettes from store in Wallsend NSW. Also stocks books and other items. (Mentioned along with Red Eye Records by a serious collector profiled in Record Collector.)

Oz Music Online
AUSTRALIA “New and used CD’s, Vinyl Records and Music Memorabilia”

Pinewood Records
AUSTRALIA Record label and mail order outlet has a unique range of Australian country, pop and rockabilly plus some imports, mainly on CD.

Playback Records
AUSTRALIA Switched-on Australian specialist reissue label.

Red Eye Records
AUSTRALIA Sydney record dealer recommended by a happy customer and friend of PopArchives, definitely worth a try.

Rocking Horse Records
AUSTRALIA Independent Brisbane record store has a load of new and used vinyl as well as CDs and other music-related items. A visit is best, but they do mail order for new items.

Teensville Records
AUSTRALIA Small but intriguing catalogue by independent reissue label that “specialises in compiling seldom heard rarities of the 1960s on CD”. Australian company but prices are in US dollars.

Classical 33
UK Online vinyl and CD store specialising in rare, deleted and promo items.

Vinyl Tap
UK Record & CD store.

Alibris
USA Portal for sellers of used music, movies and books.

Craig Moerer - Records by Mail
USA Vinyl dealer based in Portland, Oregon runs a reliable and fast mail order service that offers a couple of million titles, including some from Australia.