David Ritz

The Life of Marvin Gaye: Divided Soul is the definitive biography of an enormously gifted and sensitive musician. David Ritz presents his uniquely candid and intimate account of the tumultuous life of the Prince of Soul music, Marvin Gaye. Assembling years of conversations and interviews from his life as a close friend and lyricist to the gifted Soul sensation, Ritz tells the Marvin Gaye story with fly-on-the-wall accuracy and detail. From his...

A powerful chronicle of the sixteen weeks leading up to King of Pop Michael Jackson's death.
Michael Jackson's final months were like the rest of his short and legendary life: filled with deep lows and soaring highs, a constant hunt for privacy, and the pressure and fame that made him socially fragile and almost — ultimately — unable to live.
With the insight and compassion that he brought to his bestselling story of Martin Luther...

Ray Charles (1930-2004) led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. In Brother Ray, he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the pervasive racism of the era, Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius by the age of thirty-two. By combining the influences...

A biography of Ray Charles who has triumphed over poverty, blindness, and racism to become one of America's greatest singer.

"Over the last forty-five years, David Ritz has collaborated with some of the biggest stars in music. Working to give a voice to these iconic musicians, he found his own, and following the sacred pulse he calls "The God Groove," he also found belief in Christ. In his moving memoir, he recalls growing up as a secular Jew in New York and Dallas, and finding himself drawn to the smoky jazz clubs and Pentecostal churches where the music touched something...

Kravitz looks back at his life with candor, self-scrutiny, and humor. It's the story of a wildly creative kid who, despite tough struggles at school and extreme tension at home, finds salvation in music. Readers will follow his growth as a musician and ultimately a master songwriter, producer, and performer. Kravitz also discusses his spiritual growth, and the powerful way in which spirit informs his music. -- adapted from jacket

Presents a revealing and dramatic chronicle of the 12 months leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

New York Times­ best-selling author Cornel West is one of America’s most provocative and admired public intellectuals. Whether in the classroom, the streets, the prisons, or the church, Dr. West’s penetrating brilliance has been a bright beacon shining through the darkness for decades.

Yet, as he points out in this new memoir, "I’ve never taken the time to focus on the inner dynamics of the dark precincts...