"Michael Kilgarriff's cross-indexed compilation of nearly 18,000 song titles, 1860-1920, offers for the first time in one volume answers to the questions which excite Music Hall and popular song enthusiasts more than anything in life: who sang what and when and who wrote it? The criteria for a song's inclusion are popularity, topicality, and significance in the career of its singer. Also included are titles still remembered and performed, for it is at today's Music Hall artistes and producers that these checklists are primarily aimed ... " -- Inside front cover.