For millions who grew up in the 20th Century, no other art form retains quite the same immediacy and impact of popular music. Sometimes it may only take a few notes for series of fond, forgotten memories to be triggered. The opening bars of a favorite song can hold the power to instantly transport a listener to a more youthful time.

Until a year ago the South Pasadena Public Library’s CD collection, while strong on classical and opera titles, was noticeably shy when it came to pop and rock. There was more than a smattering of jazz, folk, soundtrack, and show tunes, but the collection clearly lacked most of the biggest selling and critically praised popular music albums of the last 50 years.

But that’s all changed with two major CD collection purchases by the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library. Approximately 450 new titles have been added. The Friends also bought a new CD display case to showcase the discs and it’s stationed near the new book area. However, the new CDs have proven so popular that the case is frequently almost empty.

The new popular music CD collection is very wide-ranging, and covers musicians from Aerosmith to ZZ Top and The Zombies, and Abba to Frank Zappa and Warren Zevon.  The Beatles and The Beach Boys are well represented. In fact, the Library now has almost every one of the original albums by those two groups. The Beau Brummels, Blondie and the B-52s are included too. And they check out almost as quickly as they are returned.

The broad musical assortment also features top rated soul music with albums by The Temptations, The Supremes, The Spinners, Etta James, Otis Redding, and James Brown, to name but a few. Singer-songwriters such as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, and Jackson Browne are prominently featured. South Pasadena-based musicians AlmaNova, Vic Buxton, Brad Colerick, and Elliott Caine are there too.

The popular music artists mentioned merely scratch the surface of the depth of the collection. If you don’t see CDs by your favorites in the display bin when you visit the Library, it may be worth a minute or two to punch in Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Stan Getz, or any others in the Library’s online catalog, since any of the CDs can be placed on reserve at no charge.  The wonderful recollections they can invoke may be on their way soon.