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The founders of Fania Records didn't set out to change the course of Latin music, but that's just what they did. The label went out of business in the late 1970s, and the records have since become hard-to-find collector's items. Now, a Miami-based record label is reissuing that music.

Rock historian Ed Ward reviews a new history of gospel music, People Get Ready! by Robert Darden.

The roots of gospel music are not well-documented. Early recordings were lost. Stories behind the songs weren't written down. A new book recounts the history of the beloved American art form. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Robert Darden, author of People Get Ready!.

In his new book So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star, Jacob Slichter, the drummer for the band Semisonic, peels away the glamour that gives the world of rock its sheen of cool. He speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

When European musical notation began in the 8th and 9th centuries, the Western world was already filled with music. Sacred chants and secular songs were rich with melody, rhythm and harmony. Richard Taruskin begins our chronicle with the early music of the church.

Director John Waters, known for making art from sleaze, has a new CD for the season, A John Waters Christmas. It includes such songs as "Here Comes Fatty Claus" and "Little Mary Christmas" — all from the man once crowned the "Pope of Trash" by William Burroughs.

Elvis Presley confidant Jerry Schilling talks about his new book, Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley. When Schilling was 12 years old, he met the teenaged Elvis Presley at a north Memphis pickup football game. As Presley rose to fame, Schilling joined him on the rise, eventually becoming creative affairs director for Elvis Presley Enterprises.

As a part of our continuing series of Mozart commentaries, Jane Glover, conductor and author of Mozart's Women, introduces us to the composer's mother, Maria Anne; his sister, Nannerl; and wife, Constanze, pictured at left. All three had an influence on his music.

With writer Penny Valentine, Vicki Wickham is the author of Dancing with Demons: The Authorized Biography of Dusty Springfield. Wickham was Springfield's close friend and manager for over a decade of the enigmatic British singer's career.

Hip-hop didn't always have a violent reputation. In fact, for many in the African-American community it was a revolution and a redemption. Author Jeff Chang chronicles the history of rap in his book Can't Stop, Won't Stop and how it continues to transform the world of popular music.