The Library of Congress has made available a set of audio interviews that retired music executive Joe Smith conducted with more than 200 singers and musicians.
You can listen to Smith's interviews with Tony Bennett, Burt Bacharach, Ray Charles, George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Dave Brubeck (who died today at age 91), to name just a few.
From the Library of Congress' web page about the Joe Smith Collection at the Library of Congress:
More than 25 years ago, retired music executive Joe Smith accomplished a Herculean feat—he got more than 200 celebrated singers, musicians and industry icons to talk about their lives, music, experiences and contemporaries. In 2012 Smith donated this treasure trove of unedited sound recordings to the nation’s library.
The Joe Smith Collection contains over 225 recordings of noted artists and executives and is a veritable who’s who in the music industry. They include Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Elton John, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Sting, Tony Bennett, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Dick Clark, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, B.B. King, Quincy Jones, David Geffen, Mickey Hart, Harry Belafonte and many others. All types of popular music are represented—from rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, rhythm & blues and pop to big-band, heavy metal, folk and country-western.
