Music memoirs arrive every year, but 2025’s line-up is more eclectic than most, covering the stories of seminal artists, the writers who followed them and the careers that grew from those encounters.
The books carry the expected tour and studio anecdotes, yet they also offer clear accounts of how these figures held on to what kept them steady, whether faith, family, close friends or the drive that pushed them to start writing songs as teenagers at home.
In alphabetical order, here are five standout picks of the year.
Cat on the Road to Findout by Yusuf / Cat Stevens
Cat On The Road To Findout recounts the musician's illness and near-drowning that forced him to reconsider how he wanted to live. Photo: Constable
Yusuf begins with his childhood in London and the songs that carried him through the charts in the late 1960s.
He writes about those giddy years, living above his family’s West End restaurant and moving quickly to a level of early fame that drew large audiences and constant attention.
The book follows the illness and near-drowning that halted that rise and forced him to reconsider how he wanted to live. Yusuf records the years after his conversion to Islam in 1977 with the same detail, focusing on children’s education and charity initiatives that shaped his work away from the music industry, before he returned to the studio and stage on his own terms.
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