Definitive biographies, revelatory memoirs, essential history, and more

Our favorite books this year (listed here in alphabetical order) included memoirs from Britney Spears, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, Tariq Trotter of the Roots, and other iconic artists, as well as two great additions to the Beatles library, a groundbreaking biography of Lou Reed, and fascinating histories of goth, 2000s emo, and Sixties girl groups.

‘Into the Void,’ Geezer Butler

In Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler was the “Quiet One” in the Seventies’ loudest band, playing wah-wah bass rumbles and poeticizing paranoia for Ozzy Osbourne as the group’s chief lyricist. In Into the Void, he opens up about formative moments (learning that he didn’t just hate eating meat, but was actually a “vegetarian,” a word he learned on tour at an Asian restaurant), he tells unexpected stories behind the band’s most well-known lyrics (“Iron Man” is actually about Jesus Christ taking vengeance instead of forgiving), and he peels back the curtain on Sabbath’s decades of breakups and makeups. It’s entertaining and enlightening, and along with Osbourne’s and Tony Iommi’s memoirs, the book provides a welcome, alternate gospel on the birth of heavy metal.

‘But Will You Love Me Tomorrow: An Oral History of the Sixties Girl Groups,’ Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz

Too often, the girl groups who defined the pop charts in the early Sixties have been historicized in terms of the male producers (and sometimes the male-female songwriting teams) who called the shots. This feast of an oral history puts the focus back on the young women who sang those hits. First-time author Laura Flam and poet Emily Sieu Liebowitz have combined 100 new interviews with a slew of finely combed secondary sources. These singers know their strengths, and not just vocally, as when Nedra Talley-Ross of the Ronettes explains the group’s “eye makeup was exaggerated, our hair was exaggerated, because it was like, see me in the balcony. You had to project your voice, but you had to project your look too.”

’60 Songs That Explain the Nineties,’ Rob Harvilla

‘Lou Reed: The King of New York,’ Will Hermes

‘Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History,’ Bill Janovitz

‘My Effin’ Life,’ Geddy Lee

‘Kleenex/Liliput,’ Marlene Marder and Grace Ambrose

‘1964: Eyes of the Storm,’ Paul McCartney

‘Sonic Life: A Memoir’ Thurston Moore

‘Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors From the Songs of Steely Dan,’ Alax Pappademas and Joan LeMay