| Preface: Definitions |
| Forebears: The Birth and The Blues |
| Mr. Satch and Mr. Cros: Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby |
| The First Generation: The Late Twenties and Early Thirties |
| Cult of the White Goddess: Mildred Bailey, Connee Boswell, and Lee Wiley |
| Sing Me A Swing Song! - Canaries of the Hellenic Era |
| Lady Day and Lady Time: Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald |
| Brothers and Sisters: The Early Hot Vocal Groups |
| The Conquest of the Crooners: Pop Singing in the Postwar Era |
| Modernism I: Sing A Song of Bebop |
| Modernism 2: Ballads, Baritones, and B. |
| Modernism 3: Torme, O'day, and the Vo-Cool School |
| Sinatra! - And Other Swingin' Lovers |
| Singing Horns: Jack Teagarden to Chet Baker |
| Revolt of the Philistines: Problems and Answers in the Sixties |
| Present Tense: The Past Predicted, the Future Re-Created |
| Selected Discography: Further Definitions |
| Aknowledgements: "Additions to Further Definitions" |
| Index |