| | Introduction: Welcome to the Party | p. ix |
| | Straight Out of Brooklyn | p. 1 |
| | Recovering from Shattering Losses | p. 13 |
| | A Harvard Man | p. 19 |
| | A New Life Back in New York | p. 27 |
| | The Offer That Changed My Life | p. 34 |
| | Running Columbia Records | p. 44 |
| | Making A&R Moves | p. 53 |
| | Monterey Pop | p. 64 |
| | Columbia Gets Hot | p. 72 |
| | Pearl | p. 89 |
| | Simon and Garfunkel | p. 100 |
| | Dylan | p. 110 |
| | What Kind of Career Do I Want? | p. 125 |
| | From Santana to Springsteen | p. 133 |
| | Talent Raids and Finding the Company's Soul | p. 149 |
| | The End of One Fantasy | p. 163 |
| | Searching for a New Beginning | p. 179 |
| | Arista Means Excellence | p. 186 |
| | Manilow Mania | p. 192 |
| | Building a New Label | p. 206 |
| | Patti Smith and Lou Reed | p. 220 |
| | Ready to Rock | p. 231 |
| | The Grateful Dead | p. 241 |
| | Gil Scott-Heron and Ghostbusters | p. 251 |
| | Broadway, Soundtracks, and Comedy | p. 263 |
| | Dionne Warwick | p. 271 |
| | The Queen of Soul | p. 278 |
| | New Wave, Heavy Metal, and Eurythmics | p. 297 |
| | Whitney | p. 307 |
| | Beyond the House That Barry Built | p. 341 |
| | Arista Pop Explodes ... into Milli Vanilli | p. 355 |
| | Arista Nashville and New Country Music | p. 373 |
| | LaFace Rules! | p. 385 |
| | Bad Boy | p. 400 |
| | Sarah McLachlan, Ace of Base, and the Freewheeling Nineties | p. 412 |
| | Supernatural Santana | p. 423 |
| | Instant Major | p. 435 |
| | Alicia | p. 452 |
| | The J Records Years | p. 462 |
| | Rod Stewart and the Great American Songbook | p. 472 |
| | Rock at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century | p. 483 |
| | American Idol and Kelly Clarkson | p. 498 |
| | More on the Idol Franchise | p. 517 |
| | Accepting Change and Moving Forward | p. 536 |
| | Acknowledgments | p. 553 |
| | Index | p. 555 |