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‘200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs’ Book Excerpt Collectables In the 1960s, the movers and shakers of the Philadelphia music scene would gather one night a month at the home of Jerry Blavat, the top-rated disc jockey and host of TV’s The Discophonic Scene . Famous as “The Geator with the Heator” and “The Boss With Hot Sauce,” Blavat hosted a group called the “Mother’s Club.” Music industry heavyweights like Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler along with record promoters and songwriters

‘Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever’ Book Excerpt Fillmore East, 1971. © Jeff Rothstein In this excerpt from the book Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever , two people who worked at promoter Bill Graham’s historic concert hall describe for the first time the night Paul McCartney — in disguise — and future wife Linda Eastman attended a show. Marc Rubenstein is the founder of Pig Light Show, one of the pioneering groups of technicians t

‘100 Greatest Soul Songs’ Book Excerpt Tamla Motown “Dancing in the Street” was written in the Motown hit factory by Marvin Gaye, horn player Ivy Jo Hunter, and producer Mickey Stevenson. Martha Reeves was working at Motown as a secretary when she recorded the Hot 100 № 2 hit in 1964. “One day, there was some sort of union dispute and they needed someone to sing on a demo, so I offered,” said Reeves in The Guardian. “The next thing I knew, I was singing backup on Marvin’s “St

'New York Groove' Book Excerpt Bleecker Bob's Records, 2013. © Frank Mastropolo In this excerpt from the book New York Groove: An Inside Look at the Stars, Shows, and Songs That Make NYC Rock , we look back at Bleecker Bob’s, the iconic Greenwich Village record shop. Fellow record collectors Al Trommers and Robert Plotnik opened Village Oldies in 1967 at 149 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. It was at the record shop that Trommers, known as Broadway Al, gave Plotnik the n