Three Music Legends of the 20th Century

According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame "Before the world heard of KISS, the New York Dolls, Marilyn Manson or Ozzy Osbourne, there was Alice Cooper, the original shock-rock band." Riding on a string of hits like "I'm 18" and "School's Out," Alice Cooper became America's highest-grossing act, producing four platinum albums and hitting number one on the U.S. and U.K. charts with Billion Dollar Babies in 1973. Their outrageous staging and performances were copied by countless bands. Dennis Dunaway, the bassist and co-songwriter for Alice Cooper, tells a story just as over-the-top crazy as their infamous shows in Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! : My Adventures in The Alice Cooper Group (Thomas Dunne Books). Kirkus Reviews calls the book “. . . more than just an homage to his old friend; it's a love letter to an era... An affectionate, sharp-eyed memoir.”

James Kaplan has been writing about people and ideas in business and popular culture, as well as notable fiction for over three decades. His essays and reviews, as well as more than a hundred major profiles of figures, have appeared in many magazines including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and New York. His novels include Pearl's Progress and Two Guys From Verona, a New York Times Notable Book for 1998. His nonfiction works include The Airport, You Cannot Be Serious (with John McEnroe), Dean and Me: A Love Story (with Jerry Lewis), and the first volume of his definitive biography of Frank Sinatra, Frank: The Voice. The story of "Ol' Blue Eyes" continues with Sinatra: The Chairman (Doubledays), picking up the day after Frank claimed his Academy Award in 1954. Sinatra’s life post-Oscar was incredibly dense: in between recording albums and singles, he often shot four or five movies a year; did TV show and nightclub appearances; started his own label, Reprise; and juggled his considerable commercial ventures (movie production, the restaurant business, even prizefighter management) alongside his famous and sometimes notorious social activities and commitments.

Warren Zanes holds a PhD in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester. He was a member of the Del Fuegos, and continues to record music. His writing has appeared in the Oxford American. He has served as a Vice President. at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is currently the Executive Director of Little Steve Van Zandt's Rock and Roll Forever Foundation. Zanes’s latest book is Petty: The Biography (Henry Holt and Co.), an exhilarating and intimate account of the life of music legend Tom Petty, by an accomplished writer and musician who toured with Petty. Tom Petty's story has all the drama of a rock and roll epic. Now in his mid-sixties, still making records and still touring, Petty, known for his reclusive style, has shared with Warren Zanes his insights and arguments, his regrets and lasting ambitions, and the details of his life on and off the stage. This is a book for those who know and love the songs, from "American Girl" and "Refugee" to "Free Fallin'" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance," and for those who want to see the classic rock and roll era embodied in one man's remarkable story.