Imprint Friday: Up All Night by Carol Miller

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Ecco books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

If you're a fan of classic rock and live in New York or subscribe to Sirius/XM radio, then you're likely familiar Carol Miller's voice. Miller, who has been on the air almost every day since the early 1970s, tells her life story in her new memoir, Up All Night: My Life and Times in Rock Radio, out this week.

Here's the publisher's summary:

The all-American chronicle of radio legend Carol Miller, from her rise to success in a male dominated world, to the rockstars she's know along the way, to, for the first time, the private story of her quietly waged battle with a deadly disease.

As one of the nation's top radio DJs, Carol Miller introduced the music of Bruce Springsteen to the New York airwaves, was on a first-name basis with Sir Paul McCartney, dated Steven Tyler, and has been recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her on-air approach and singular voice have influenced the sound of rock radio for more than four decades, and her satellite and syndicated Get the Led Out programs are heard nationwide.

In Up All Night, Carol spins the entertaining, moving, and revealing story of her life and times in rock radio and beyond. A nice Jewish girl from Queens, Carol was supposed to be a doctor or, at the very least, a lawyer. But hearing a doo-wop trio in the alley under her window changed the direction of her life forever: she fell in love with popular music. . . .

Told in the distinctive voice that has charmed millions of listeners for decades, Up All Night is a frank, funny, and inspiring memoir. Offering snapshots of the rarefied world of pop music and the shifting social history of our times, it is as much a cultural chronicle as it is one woman's candid and moving story.

In some ways, Carol Miller has led a blessed life. For example, in 1964, through family connections, she was a guest at a preshow rehearsal of The Ed Sullivan Show, which featured several British rock bands, including Gerry and the Pacemakers. Later that same year, she saw the Beatles live in New York, while her parents sat in a cafe down the street, waiting to pick her up. Then, in less than a decade, when she was still in college and barely of age, Miller landed her first professional radio job in Philadelphia in the early 1970s.

But despite meeting most of the rock greats, such as Linda and Paul McCarthy, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul Stanley (from Kiss), Miller has had more than her share of hardship. The toughest has been her decades-long battle with familial breast cancer and related conditions. Although Miller speaks frankly of her long-undiagnosed breast problems, her multiple botched reconstruction surgeries, and her more recent bout of uterine cancer, she does not dwell on her health issues. In fact, after each surgery, Miller came back on the air in record time, often missing only a week of work. Refusing to let cancer define her, she never mentioned her illnesses to her listeners, and even when writing about her surgeries, she remains upbeat and defiant.

After reading Miller's memoir, what sticks with you is not her battle to stay alive but the fascinating and exciting opportunities she's had throughout her life, from her first on-air interview (with Lily Tomlin) to her relationship with Mark Goodman (one of the first VJs) and her struggle to keep her job in the face of changing technology and radio formats. Note that Miller is respectful of the musicians and other stars she's met, so don't expect a tell-all, brimming with gossipy details.

Carol Miller's Up All Night will especially appeal to classic rock fans and baby boomers.

For more on Carol Miller, read this 2009 interview in the New York Times and sample her Sirius/XM radio show.

Beth Fish Reads is proud to showcase Ecco books as a featured imprint on this blog. For more information about Ecco, please read the introductory note from Vice President / Associate Publisher Rachel Bressler, posted here on July 15, 2011. Find your next great read by clicking on Ecco in the scroll-down topics/labels list in my sidebar and by visiting Ecco books on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

Up All Night at an Indie

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Published by HarperCollins / Ecco, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780061845246