Rick Beyer has a whole series of books with titles similar to this one. This one however just deals with the back stories to popular tunes, and I’ve seldom had as much fun as I did in reading this during the summer. 
There are lots of surprises in and about this book. For one thing the hardcover edition (which emerged in 2011) is less expensive than the Kindle edition. Only 12 bucks in hardcover. For another thing, the book has lots of vintage pictures in it . Perhaps it has something to do with the History channel’s involvement with this series. Where did the song Taps come from, or Auld Lang Syne, or For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow, or New York, New York. The sheer range of songs covered is amazing from 1400 B.C. to 2007, from ancient ballads to classical music, to folk, to rock, to jazz, to blues, to national anthems there is something for everyone in this book and it makes for a nice gift. If you want to learn a little something, sing a little something with knowledge of where the song came from, this is the book for you.
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