Work to date & in progress
The archive has been built over nearly two decades and is still growing. This page sets out what is finished and what is being worked on now, so you can see where the gaps are.
73 songs currently appear only inside a collection. Each is being given a full record page with its own metadata, scans and annotation.
3,700+ songs carry a written analysis. The rest are being worked through, longer entries first.
Every record in the collection is being scanned or photographed — labels first, then picture sleeves and inserts. Records the project does not own depend on collectors sending scans.
Lyric quotations are being added song by song. Non-English songs are shown with the original words and an English translation side by side; Vietnamese, Spanish, German and Japanese material is the current focus.
The project’s thematic lists are being rebuilt here one at a time, each with an introduction, pictures and its own chronology. More are added with every update.
Pages that gather a songwriter’s or label’s output are being extended as the credits in the underlying data are cleaned up.
Dates, credits, locations and spellings are corrected as better evidence arrives — often from the people who made the records, or their families.
A want list of releases the project knows of but has not yet found. If you own one, or can point to a copy, please get in touch.
How the work is done
Songs are identified from record catalogues, radio and label listings, veterans’ and collectors’ suggestions, and years of record hunting. Each one is then dated, located, tagged for its lyric themes and, where the record is held, scanned or photographed and transcribed. Nothing is published until the record itself — or a reliable source describing it — has been seen.
Corrections and additions are very welcome. See Contribute, or write to [email protected].