The Night Before

David Hajdu is a critic and cultural historian who teaches at the Columbia Journalism School. He is a five-time winner of the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing, most recently for A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge (Columbia, 2021, with John Carey). His biography of Billy Strayhorn, Lush Life, was named one of the hundred best nonfiction books of all time by the New York Times.

The Night Before provides yet more evidence—although we hardly needed it—that David Hajdu is among our most sensitive and probing critics of contemporary culture. His breadth is breathtaking: Whether he is writing about The Beatles or Tony Bennett or the comic strip auteur Daniel Clowes, he is an illuminating guide.

• The Night Before, Today, and TomorrowI. MusicFour Goddesses of the Billboard ChartsGeorge JonesTony BennettJulius EastmanMaria SchneiderPaul SimonArthur RussellAlejandro EscovedoFred HerschTed HearneBillie Holiday and Frank SinatraII. Books on MusicBob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern SongDavid Robertson’s W. C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the BluesDonald Bogle’s Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel WatersTom Nolan’s Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake: The Life of Artie ShawStanley Crouch’s Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie ParkerCarolyn Burke’s No Regrets: The Life of Edith PiafJames Gavin’s Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet BakerRandall J. Stephens’s The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ’ n’ RollMaria Golia’s Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the AdventureJames McBride’s Kill ’ Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James BrownAnn Powers’s Traveling: On the Path of Joni MitchellRichard Hilburn’s A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy NewmanDavid Weigel’s The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog RockDylan Jones’s David Bowie: A LifeVivien Goldman’s Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy RiotJonathan Gould’s Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed RockPatti Smith’s Bread of AngelsBruce Springsteen’s Born to RunCyndi Lauper’s Cyndi Lauper: A MemoirPhilip Glass’s Words Without MusicDaniel Okrent’s Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t EasyJohn Seabrook’s The Song Machine: Inside the Hit FactoryIII. Some Thoughts on the Beatles“You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”Get BackPhilip Norman’s Paul McCartney: The LifePaul McCartney’s The LyricsGrowing Old Without John LennonIV. ComicsPercy Crosby and SkippyMad and the Movie MusicalRobert Crumb’s The Book of GenesisArt Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No TowersDaniel ClowesAdrian TomineRoz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?Jason Lutes’s BerlinV. Shorter TakesMamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues”Kitty Wells and J. D. MillerThe Secret History of the Folk Anthem of HungaryBill WithersDonald ShirleyWilliam ParkerSound Portraits from BulgariaTaylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular MusicMary HalvorsonMeow MeowHildur GuðnadóttirJulia Wolfe’s Fire in My MouthNathalie JoachimLil Naz X’s “Old Town Road”Billie EilishMary KouyoumdjianVI. MeMy Most Memorable ConcertMy First GuitarThe River and MeWho Owned That Book Before Me?My Favorite BarVII. A Few Other ThingsHermes Pan64 East Seventh StreetAre You a Certified Pop Genius?AcknowledgmentsPermissionsIndex