Due to the popularity of T.J. Lubinsky's "American Soundtrack" series on PBS there has been renewed interest in the music known as "doo wop".  As an avid collector of 45's I became interested in the genre in the late 1980's.  Collectables Records had reissued hundreds and hundreds of doo wop records. There was just one problem.  There were simply no reference books available to help me distinguish the great stuff from the mediocre or bad.  In 1992, the original incarnation of this book entitled "Doo Wop: The Forgotten Third of Rock and Roll" was issued.  It was a quite literally a godsend.  It was very apparent that the authors loved their subject matter and I referred to this book constantly.

In 2000, Dr. Anthony Gribin and Dr. Matthew Schiff released the updated version of their book.  Now entitled "The Complete Book of Doo-Wop",  this expanded version includes a complete "songography" of just about every doo-wop 45 rpm record ever made.  The list is arranged alphabetically by artist and includes song title (both A & B sides), year of issue and record label and number.  All these years later I still find myself referring to this on a regular basis.  But the most useful portion of the book for me is the list of the "Best 1000 Doo-Wop Songs".  This list is what really helps one seperate the wheat from the chaff.  And while one may quibble about individual entries on that list, I have found it to be remarkably accurate over the years.  It is what really helped turn me on to the music of artists like The Harptones, The Cardinals and The Ravens to name just to name a few.  One of my favorite features in the updated version of the book is a list of "100 Recommended Pre-Doo-Wop Recordings .  On this list you will find music by such artists as The Four Vagabonds,  The Deep River Boys and The Boswell Sisters.  This is all great stuff and definitely worth a listen.  Finally, there are dozens of wonderful photographs, a doo-wop aptitude test, doo-wop crossword puzzles and so much more.  For any collector of American popular music this book should be an essential part of your library.  Very highly recommended.