The Andrews Sisters: A Biography and Career Record

Rating:
Summary: Good, but lacking in some departments
Review: The author has done an overall decent job in dissecting the Andrews Sisters rollercoaster career, however I was surprised that there were no photographs of sheet music or even a record album. Not even one. The singing trio released hundreds of albums over the decades, yet no photograph of an LP album cover in this book. I'd have liked to have seen what the first album cover looked like and even their final LP release.

Rating:
Summary: This is the Book you've been looking for!
Review: This terrific effort is jam-packed with details, information, sociology, chronology, scandal, reviews of performances and recordings from all stages of their career and an overall unabashed affection for the never-to-be-topped Andrews Sisters. To say that this author did his homework only begins to describe the vast accumulated data and the fun collage of material that is stuffed into this work. If this book is not definitive, it is about as close as any Andrews Sisters book is likely to get.
The only major missing element of this history is the lack of participation by the surviving Sister, Patty, who apparently did not respond to requests for an interview for this project. This lack of input from Patty is significant but the author provides key insights from many contemporaries close to the Sisters.
The price tag is a bargain for anyone interested in the best female vocalists of the 20th Century, their times, their struggles, their success and their joyous legacy of brassy, vibrant popular music. For Andrews Sisters collectors, this Book is the Dead Sea Scrolls!