Playboy Swings!: How Hugh Hefner and Playboy Changed the Face of Music

You already know about the Bunnies, now learn about the music that helped shape Playboy.

Playboy--the magazine, the empire, the lifestyle--is one of the world’s best known brands. Since the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953, two elements have been remarkably consistent: the first, is the celebration of the female form. The second, readers may be surprised to learn, is Playboy’s involvement in the music scene. The playboy experience has never been just about sex, but about lifestyle. Hugh Hefner’s personal passion for music, particularly fine jazz, has always been an essential component of that.

Full of interviews with hundreds of people who were on the scene throughout the rise, fall, and on-going renaissance, Playboy Swings carries readers on a seductive journey. Farmer focuses on Playboy’s involvement in the music scene and impact on popular entertainment, and demonstrates how the empire helped change the world by integrating television and festivals.

Join Patty Farmer as she guides the reader through the first inception of the Playboy empire through the 1959 Jazz Festival, and club opening after club opening. With 60 pages of photos and a complete reference guide, readers will associate music, not just Bunnies, when thinking about Playboy after reading this enthralling look into the history of one of the world’s most infamous brands.

Patty Farmer is acknowledged as the leading expert on all things pertaining to music, entertainment--and the entertainers--of Playboy. She’s also a businesswomanand former model, and has followed the entertainment industry as an insider, as well as an avid fan and archivist all her life. Her work draws upon a lifetime of friendship and socializing among personalities and celebrities around the world. In her previous book, The Persian Room Presents, she transported readers back to the halcyon days of New York City nightlife. Patty splits her time between New York, Texas, and France.

Will Friedwald writes about jazz and popular music for The Wall Street Journal, where he has written the weekly column The Jazz Scene since 2010. He is the author of eight books on music and popular culture, has received ten Grammy Award nominations for album notes and production, and is internationally recognized as a leading authority on jazz and adult pop music, as well as Broadway shows, jazz and pop vocalists, big bands, and classic American pop.