1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die: And 10,001 You Must Download

After reading the whole thing and starting on the 10,001 download list I can say with utter confidence that I'd pay so much more than the list price to have discovered even a few of these songs. The book is comprehensive, informative, and eye opening. The people who grumble about the writers' tastes clearly only read a few pages: everything from the Carter Family to Kanye is in here, and 11,000 more. This book has been a solid friend to me for months now.

I realize that this book has been around for a while, and I'm kind of late to the train here, but I wanted to compliment the editors for putting together such a terrific mix of music, spanning so many genres.I recently got an Amazon Echo and decided to get this book as well to use the Prime Music function. Each day, my daughter and I have been listening to music from this book (so far I've found about 90% of them are available on Prime).But what makes the book special are the narratives that go along with each song. You learn something about the artist, the genre of music, or some terrific anecdote.Have I loved every song? No. But I appreciate knowing why they are important and I have added a ton of songs to my playlists.Yes, some of your favorite songs may be missing - after all the songs presented here are done so based on the opinions of the editors. And a few artists are perhaps over-represented. But the book has really opened my eyes (ears) to different genres and have given me a chance to experience songs I've only heard about - not heard.My daughter and I have a lot of songs to go, but we are really enjoying our musical adventure!

Love this book! Has interesting facts and information about the songs, and includes every genre, songs from different countries, and spans songs from 1916 to 2017. Even better is the fact that people have made Spotify playlists based on the book. So you can actually hear every one of the songs!

Bought this for my son who is just getting into music. I've more or less stolen this from him. There are many wonderful aspects to this book, but a favorite is getting the backstory on what songs are covers and then listening to the covers. Eg. Tainted Love: by Gloria Jones - Relevatory.

I don't agree with all of the choices...many of these are songs I haven't ever heard of. But the information about each song is very interesting and compelling. I do love the broad range of genres included in the list...makes for FASCINATING reading!

I would definitely recommend this book for those that really enjoy music.

I have mixed feelings about this compendium. As others have mentioned, a lot of great music listed, (Tori Amos' "Cornflake Girl", Beach Boys' "Surf's Up" and the Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows" stand out as highlights), but in my opinion, it's overtly hit-heavy for a title that I inferred as meaning it would list a lot more obscure songs that the author wanted to make sure that I didn't miss.Some of the bands seem under-researched - listing the Bangles' " Eternal Flame" in the download list while ignoring the infinitely better and gorgeous "More Than Meets the Eye" and "Dover Beach" shows lazy thinking as far as I am concerned; while " Flame" is beautiful, it is over-produced and is not representative of what they do best. (BTW, if you like this song, there's a lovely unplugged version of Susanna Hoffs doing it a solo acoustic version of it at Lilith Fair that showcases it far better.)"Valley Girl" and "Je'taime"? Really? Why novelty songs in a collection of this kind?The 80's section thankfully pays respect to REM, but much of the rock included is mostly synthesizer-based pop. While this was indeed a huge component of 80's music that got played on the radio, it was not remotely the only thing going on - there was a counter-movement of guitar-based post-punk that was worthy of more consideration here. Leaving X for the download-only section seemed an error of this sort.LOVE that the author includes Elastica, however derivative many say they were. Their first album blew me away and I miss them.I heartily agree that Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" is possibly the best thing she ever did. Which is saying a lot for such an amazing musician.I was happy to see a lot of world music here that I had not previously been exposed to - will definitely check these out! Pretty solid job on the jazz standards, although I do agree with previous reviewers that some worthy of note had been skipped over.As for country and the choices included for hip hop and R&B, I honestly don't know enough to comment and will leave that to others. But I will say that giving Freda Payne her due was great and I loved the choices listed for Stevie Wonder.I would say read the reviews, adjust your expectations and keep in mind that the author couldn't possibly please everyone, including me. "So you have to please yourself."- Rick Nelson

I bought this book for my son because he's a music lover and I thought he'd enjoy it. He thought it was such a great gift idea, he bought one as a gift also. It's been a real hit! I'm glad I bought it.

Excelente libro, llegó todo bien sin ningún daño.

I think I understand the spirit where that book have been written. Not for the BEST HIT EVER, but the songs where those who wrote it made a difference. For example, WHOLE LOTTA LOVE from ZEPPELIN, this is the song who made ZEPPELIN so different in 1969, ont he other hand STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN was an excellent ballad, but not different of a quantity of others very well written ballads.I'd love the pre-50s chapter, so many songs in the 20s 30s 40s has to be mentioned, and was shaping a road for a million of others through the times, thanks for that.Also the 80s 90s and the 00s are very interesting, for those like me who wouldn't have necessary the time for listening everything in all sections of music ever, that's quite more than informal, the scrutiny of the details and the related inspiration created or where it came from, his a must for a music fan.

Great conversation starter book. A must for a music lover.

great read. well researched. It's really the old section that is most interesting because it really gives you a glimpse of the early influences on music.