Organized alphabetically, this encyclopedia covers over 1800 songs from over 500 musicals dating from 1866 to 1994. Each entry includes a history of the song, its purpose in the show, who sang it, and more.

With regard to study of the jazz standards, The American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia is an indispensable reference book, containing over 1800 song abstracts which are, on the average, a little over 100 words. The general index includes song titles, shows, authors and performers. Most of the jazz standards may be found in this book or one of two others, also by Hischak: The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia or The American Musical Film Song Encyclopedia.

Thomas S. Hischak is also the author of Word Crazy: Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim and Stage It with Music: An Encyclopedic Guide to the American Musical Threatre. He is Professor of Theatre History and Criticism at the State University of New York College at Cortland.