Scope and Content Note
During 1986-1988, Joe Smith, then president of Capitol Records/EMI, managed to get more than two hundred celebrated singers, musicians, and industry icons to talk about their lives, music, experiences, and contemporaries. Excerpts from the 238 hours of interviews were then compiled and presented in his groundbreaking book, Off the Record, published by Warner Books in 1988.
The list of 243 noted artists and executives who were interviewed by Smith includes Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald, 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.
The Joe Smith Collection (also known as the Off the Record Collection) consists of 263 audiocassettes and 225 accompanying paper transcripts. The donated audiocassettes and transcripts are permanently held at the Library of Congress (Joe Smith also temporarily loaned CD-R copies of the interviews for digital transfer). Most of these candid and unabridged interviews were conducted by Joe Smith informally in a home, hotel, restaurant, or over the phone, while a handful were recorded for radio programs such as Westwood One and View from the Top.
The accompanying transcripts are housed in boxes RPA 00461 to RPA 00469.