Looking for the Magic
Language: English
Published by Trouser Press Books, US, 2022
- Softcover
- New

Seller: Rarewaves USA, HEBRON, KY, U.S.A.Rarewaves USA
AbeBooks seller since June 10, 2025
Condition: New
£ 26.60
Quantity: Over 20 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
This history of Arista Records, from its 1960s roots in Bell Records through the transformative success of Whitney Houston in the mid-'80s, tells the story of a record label, its visionary leader, Clive Davis, and the artists and genres it embraced and promoted: Barry Manilow, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, the Kinks and many others.Author Mitchell Cohen, a well-known music journalist who served as an AandR executive at Arista, interviewed dozens of artists and former colleagues to produce this detailed and thoughtful account of how Arista Records reflected its place and time: New York in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Seller Inventory # LU-9798985658903
- Title
- Looking for the Magic
- Author
- Mitchell Cohen
- Publisher
- Trouser Press Books, US
- Publication year
- 2022
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 13
- 9798985658903
From its inception as a new entity built on the pop and soul foundation of Bell Records, to groundbreaking artists like Gil Scott-Heron and Patti Smith, to revitalized legends like the Kinks and Aretha Franklin, up to its launching of its biggest star, Whitney Houston, Arista Records’ story has never been told like this. Looking for the Magic covers the wide scope of the label’s roster: its giant pop successes (Barry Manilow), its dedication to cutting-edge jazz (Anthony Braxton) and its embrace of rock royalty (Lou Reed, the Grateful Dead).
Looking for the Magic (named after a song by Arista group the Dwight Twilley Band) takes the reader behind the scenes, to the Kinks’ backstage fights, Lou Reed’s on-stage diatribes, and to CBGB’s, Kenny’s Castaways and the Continental Baths. We find out how “Because the Night” made its way from Bruce Springsteen to Patti Smith; how Barry Manilow went from obscurity to stardom; how MTV ushered in a second British Invasion for bands like the Thompson Twins and Haircut One Hundred; and how Arista formed alliances with adventurous labels like Stiff and Ze Records.
Mitchell Cohen has written about music and film for Creem, High Fidelity, Film Comment, the Village Voice, Musician and Phonograph Record. He began working at Arista Records in the late ‘70s as a publicity and advertising copywriter and then as one of the label’s A&R executives. He has been nominated for a Grammy, won a Clio Award and is the co-author of All These Things That I’ve Done (with Matt Pinfield) and The White Label Promo Preservation Society (with Sal Maida)."Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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