TeenBeat Mayhem!
Mike Markesich
400 pages; hardcover, Priceless Info Press (2012)
It's finally here! The ULTIMATE guide to Garage Rock in the 1960s.
A massive A-Z discography documenting every known Garage/Teenbeat 45 release -- over 16,000 songs by thousands of teenage rock'n'roll groups from across the USA.
Also includes a detailed history of the mid-60s Teenbeat explosion and its lingering impact on popular culture.
Plus the Top 1,000 '60s Garage tracks, as voted on by a panel of experts. Lavishly illustrated (in black and white and full-color) with rare band photos, label shots, picture sleeves and more. ESSENTIAL!
If you were on the cusp, or right smack dab in the middle of adolescence during the 1960s, playing in a rock'n' roll group was the coolest fad around. "TeenBeat Mayhem!" is an historical account paying tribute to this unheralded musical class from that decade, one comprised of American teenagers who forged their own brand of homegrown rock'n'roll.
This 400-page hardcover book relates how this nationwide craze exploded following "The Beatles" nationally televised debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964; how amateur and club-working groups were forced to update their sound to stay competitive, and how young novices deftly practiced their craft to become energetic performing combos.
You'll read accounts relating what it was like getting a shot at making a record, and tales of summits and pitfalls which either fortified or broke a combo's collective spirit.
It's a timeline account of the popular, regional and lesser-known groups who occupied different hierarchical levels, separated by age, life experience and musical ability, whirling around within a rapidly changing music scene.


This entire era would have remained inconspicuous without the unbridled enthusiasm of a few record collectors and rock'n'roll fanatics. You'll learn how their pioneering efforts during the 1970s to champion awareness and appreciation for the multitudes of forgotten teenage groups flourished over time, ultimately leading to the categorization of a rock'n'roll sub-genre known worldwide as the sound of '60s Garage.
"TEENBEAT MAYHEM!" also includes:
• a meticulously detailed, 228-page 45rpm discography, listing thousands of recording combos from A to Z, with monikers like "The Rogues", "The Fugitives" and "The Outcasts", to the more creative and unique: "The Alarm Clocks", "Zakary Thaks", and Dr. Spec's Optical Illusion

• a song title index cross-referencing all 16,000+ songs listed in the book

• reference sources (print and online)

• the Top 1000 "garage" songs from the USA, ranked in descending order from #1,000 to #1, each depicted by a full-color 45rpm record label scan

• a selected array of 45rpm "picture sleeves" all in full color

• other interesting features.
Designed to mimic a high school yearbook of the period, "TeenBeat Mayhem!" is the first book of its kind geared toward record collectors, rock'n'roll fans, musicologists, neophytes ... if you are curious to learn what really happened musically throughout America during the mid to late 1960s, "TEENBEAT MAYHEM!" is your primary 'go-to' reference resource.