WMU Research Guides: Music: Popular Songs & Sheet Music

Books about Popular Songs

Books about popular songs are primarily at these call numbers: ML1600-1651; ML2400-2551; ML2800-2881.

Some primary resources:

Hit Songs, 1900-1955 by Don Tyler
Call Number: ML128.P63 T95 2007 (Reference)
ISBN: 9780786429462
Publication Date: 2007-03-30
Lissauer's Encyclopedia of Popular Music in America by Robert Lissauer
Call Number: ML128.P63 L57 1996 (Reference)
ISBN: 0816032386
Publication Date: 1996-03-01
American Song by Ken Bloom
Call Number: ML128.M78 B6 1996 (Reference)
ISBN: 0028704843
Publication Date: 1996-04-17

Charts

Top 10 Pop Hits by Joel Whitburn
Call Number: ML156.4.P6 W487 2011
ISBN: 9780898201871
Publication Date: 2011-04-01
There are many similar books on charts at and around this call number.

Christmas Carols

Christmas carols are in the library at M 2065 (accompanied) and M 2085 (unaccompanied).

Finding Songs

You can use the library catalog to find a specific song. The best way is to search the song title as a phrase.

Popular songs are usually in collections at these call numbers:

M1627 Folk, national, ethnic
M1628-1677 United States
M1678-1850 Other countries, by continent/region
M1900-1998 Specific groups and topics

Some primary song indexes:

Popular Song Index by Patricia P. Havlice
Call Number: ML128.S3 H4 (Reference)
ISBN: 081080820X
Publication Date: 1975-10-01
Lists over 35,000 songs in more than 700 collections. Folk, popular, children's, hymns, spirituals, blues included.
SongCite by William D. Goodfellow
Call Number: ML128.S3 G65x 1995 (Reference)
ISBN: 0815320590
Publication Date: 1995-07-01
Lists thousands of songs published in collections. Supplements the Popular Song Index (above).
The Green Book of Songs by Subject by Jeff Green
Call Number: ML156.4.P6 G73 2002 (Reference)
ISBN: 0939735105
Publication Date: 2002-07-01

Sheet Music Collections

Songs published singly are usually in sheet music format. Sources for sheet music:

Sheet Music Collection - Music & Dance Library
A title index to the library's sheet music collection is in the card catalog near the computer stations. Request songs at the service desk.

ONLINE collections:

Streaming Audio

Music Online: Popular Music Library This link opens in a new window
Popular Music Library contains a wide range of popular music from around the world, including hundreds of thousands of tracks from major genres in pop music, including alternative, country, Christian, electronic, hip-hop, metal, punk, new age, R&B, reggae, rock, soundtracks and many more.

Songs of America
American history through songs. Recordings, essays, articles. From the Library of Congress.

Song Lyrics

National Anthems

National Anthems
MP3 files and lyrics.

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Access almost 700,000 tracks from over 47,000 CDs from 300 labels, including the entire Naxos catalog. Includes classical, world, folk, and new age. Features text resources such as music terms, a pronunciation guide, opera synopses and libretti, historical notes, and more.

Encyclopedia of National Anthems by Xing Hang
Call Number: M1627 .E53 2011 (Reference)
ISBN: 9780810876620
Publication Date: 2011-08-23

Subject and Course Guides

Music