Very good sentences about music

Not all the experiments worked — even [Mitch] Miller granted that backing Dinah Shore with bagpipes was a mistake — but his imagination and eagerness to try new approaches would inspire generations of studio innovators.

That is from How the Beatles Destroyed Rock n; Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music, by Elijah Wald.

This excellent book explains the music of the 1940s and its import, how dance shaped American popular music, how women determine which musical innovations catch on, how Prohibition affected big bands, and many other topics of interest.

Did you know that in 1955 "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" became the fastest-selling song in American history?; over twenty different versions of the song were on the charts to drive this trend. 

There have been many new books lately on the history of American popular music but this is the one you should buy and read.