Wake Me, Shake Me

New York City in the 1960s was a musical melting pot, in which folk, R&B, rock and roll, blues, girl groups and Brill Building pop produced a wealth of great artists and records. This book tells their story. Using new interviews with artists and music business professionals as well as extensive archival research, Mitchell Cohen charts the course from doo wop to girl groups to folk music to R&B to folk-rock to baroque rock to goodtime music with some of the city's leading stars: The Lovin Spoonful, The Rascals, the Blues Project, Vanilla Fudge, the Shangri-Las, Simon & Garfunkel, Laura Nyro, Bob Dylan, Bobby Darin and Dion. All of them make appearances in this fascinating history. He fleshes out the story with details about the songwriters, producers, record labels, TV shows and radio stars who all played roles in creating and popularizing the music. So Carole King, Phil Spector, Morris Levy, Alan Freed, Clive Davis, Leiber and Stoller. Mitch Miller, Murray the K and many other colorful characters figure into it. So do: dance crazes like the twist hit records by ghost groups of studio musicians like the Detergents overlooked gems like the Vagrants (with Leslie West) and the Flying Machine (with James Taylor) TV shows like Hullabaloo and Shindig Future Starsky and Hutch star David Soul promoting himself as the masked "Covered Man" on the Merv Griffin Show The Woodstock festival (which Cohen attended) Sun Ra recording an album of Batman and Robin songs a nightclub presenting live gospel music in an atmosphere Cohen calls "more Playboy Club than Baptist church." The book includes lists of 100 recommended albums and 100 great 45s from the '60s. "Wake Me, Shake Me captures the energy of New York City in the '60s and brings back personal memories of working with brilliant artists like Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and Laura Nyro. It was such an exciting time for music, and Mitchell brings it vividly to life." —Clive Davis. author of The Soundtrack of My Life "Wake Me, Shake Me is music history told with much insight and detail. Mitchell Cohen, as always, connects the dots from the perspective of a true believer in rock and roll who witnessed the explosion of pop, rock, folk and blues in New York City in the '60s. This book expresses the heart of the time with Soul." —Dion DiMucci, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and author of Dion: The Rock and Roll Philosopher "Mitchell Cohen conjures the hustle, magic and ecstasy of Gotham's groove during one of its most happening eras with a helping of context that makes it all come alive. The smile wouldn't wipe off my face no matter how I tried!" —Dennis Diken of the Smithereens "With an enthusiast's eye for the telling detail amidst copious research, Cohen puts a decade of profound musical change into celebratory perspective. Untangling the many players — musicians as well as those behind the scenes — he relates the profound elementals of rock and roll's glorious adolescence, never losing sight of the music's ability to inspire, transform and illuminate. A bravura accomplishment." —Lenny Kaye, rock guitarist and author of Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock & Roll "Wake Me, Shake Me is a wonderful love letter to the chaos, craft and blind faith behind the music of '60s New York. Part history, part hustle manual, it captures what rarely gets romanticized, the grind. The songs stuck. The rest is history." —Sam Hollander, songwriter and author of 21 Hit Wonder: Flopping My Way to the Top of the Charts