From Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday to Janice Joplin and Michael Jackson, Columbia Records has discovered and nurtured a mind-boggling spectrum of talents and temperaments over the past 100-plus years. Now, with unprecedented access to the company's archives, this book tells the stories behind the groundbreaking music. More often than not, the music was not just created by the artists themselves but forged out of conflict with the men and women who handled them--executives, producers, Artists and Repertoire men, arrangers, recording engineers, and, yes, even publicists. And at almost every narrative crossroads is an undercurrent of racial tension--a tension that not only influenced twentieth-century music, but also mirrored and at times prompted major changes in American culture.--From publisher description.