From 'ABC' to 'Walk This Way,' Steve Baltin’s New Book Anthems We Love Celebrates The Music That Shaped Generations

Anthems We Love: 29 Iconic Artists on the Hit Songs That Shaped Our Lives Out Now On Harper Horizon 

Featuring Interviews On Songs By Aerosmith, The Beach Boys, Carly Simon, CHIC, Linda Ronstadt, Linkin Park, Shania Twain, TLC + More

Whether it’s Neil Diamond unwittingly penning a sports stadium anthem with “Sweet Caroline,” My Chemical Romance inspiring a generation of emo kids with “Welcome To The Black Parade,” or Earth, Wind & Fire penning the ultimate wedding dancefloor filler with “September,” the most iconic songs of the past century of popular music have seeped into our lives in unexpected ways. In Steve Baltin’s new book Anthems We Love: 29 Iconic Artists On The Hit Songs That Shaped Our Lives (out now on Harper Horizon), the veteran music writer sits down with the artists behind the music in order to chart the unique journeys of songs — and how much of their legacy is steered by the fans. 

Baltin recently sat down with NPR Here & Now’s Robin Young for an extensive conversation on Anthems and the stories behind The Jackson 5’s “ABC,” “Le Freak” by Chic, “No Scrubs” by TLC, and so many more. Listen to their illuminating conversation here. 

Featuring interviews with a wide-ranging assortment of musical legends — from Carly Simon and The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson to TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Edge from U2 — Anthems We Love is “a must-have coffee-table book” (Glamour) that, guided by Baltin’s informational and direct style, provides an essential look at how a song’s legacy is built. 

Whether it’s U2 examining how “One” became a rallying cry at varying points of history (including post-9/11 and through the AIDS epidemic), The Doors’ Robby Krieger examining the boundless metaphorical potential of the lyric “Light My Fire,” or Janis Ian explaining how “At Seventeen”’s exuberance was abetted by an amateur rhythm guitar player joining her in the studio, Baltin expertly unspools the various musical, political, social, and personal threads that make up the fabric of a song’s existence as both a piece of art and a cultural artifact. 

Read an excerpt from Anthems We Love about Linkin Park’s “In The End,” a song whose emotional resonance and sonic innovation has only grown in stature since the untimely passing of the band’s singer Chester Bennington, over at Alternative Press. 

“I have done thousands of interviews over the years and one of the most common refrains, no matter how big the artist, is songs are like children. Anthems is what happens when those songs have grown up,” Baltin says. “All 29 of these songs have gone into the world and been a huge part of people’s lives, whether they’ve been played at weddings, funerals, births. And my favorite part of writing this book was hearing from the artists how they’ve been moved — and even shocked — by the way these songs have become part of the fabrics of listeners’ worlds in ways the artist could never have imagined. Anthems proves that when a song leaves the nest, it becomes the world’s.” 

Baltin recently appeared on the Booked On Rock podcast, listen to his conversation with host Eric Senich here. 

Anthems also includes a foreword from Cameron Crowe and an original chapter written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Keep an eye out for news about book events for Anthems We Love, and order Anthems We Love here. Anthems is also available as an audiobook, featuring Baltin and Crowe.

About Steve Baltin

Once a proud teenage music geek, Southern California-based author and journalist Steve Baltin has turned that passion into a career that can only be described as a rock and roll fantasy. As a writer for Rolling Stone, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Billboard, Playboy, and many more, as well as the host of the podcast My Turning Point and the Amazon Prime/Hulu streaming series Riffing With, Baltin has interviewed a who's who of music luminaries. Among his favorite interviews are Alanis Morissette, Slash, Stevie Wonder, Dave Grohl, ASAP Rocky, B. B. King, John Mellencamp, Aretha Franklin, Adele, and a list of artists in the thousands.

About Harper Horizon

Harper Horizon is a Nashville-based imprint within HarperCollins Focus, publishing nonfiction literature across a number of categories, including self-help, memoir, health and wellness, cooking, and other inspirational topics that reflect the values and cultural diversity of America's Heartland. Harper Horizon exists to empower the minds of readers to all things possible, whether that is learning a new skill, building community, improving the environment, or having the courage to embody their beliefs. Learn more at www.harper-horizon.com.

Anthems We Love

Foreword by Cameron Crowe

Prologue by Spencer Proffer

The Temptations, “My Girl”

The Beach Boys, “God Only Knows”

The Doors, “Light My Fire”

Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit”

Neil Diamond, “Sweet Caroline”

The 5th Dimension, “Aquarius / Let The Sun Shine In”

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Our House”

The Jackson 5, “ABC”

Carly Simon, “Anticipation”

Don McClean, “American Pie”

The Spinners, “I’ll Be Around”

Barry Manilow, “Could It Be Magic”

KISS, “Rock and Roll All Nite”

Janis Ian, “At Seventeen”

Hall & Oates, “Sara Smile”

Aerosmith, “Walk This Way”

Bob Marley, “One Love”

Earth, Wind & Fire, “September”

CHIC, “Le Freak”

TOTO, “Africa”

Linda Ronstadt, “Skylark”

Tears For Fears, “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”

Fleetwood Mac, “Big Love”

U2, “One”

Shania Twain, “You’re Still The One”

Tom Waits, “Take It With Me”

TLC, “No Scrubs”

Linkin Park, “In The End”

My Chemical Romance, “Welcome To The Black Parade”

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