It is not a collection of songs, but of the stories behind what Creswell considers are the great songs of all time – from George Gershwin to Missy Elliott, from Bob Dylan to Alicia Keys, from Frank Sinatra to The Offspring, from Leonard Cohen to Pulp.

1001 Songs is used extensively by Brian Nankervis, creator, producer and adjudicator, of SBS program RocKwiz as a source of information for questions on the show.

[5] In the foreword to the book, Creswell states the main research source was All Music Guide, which was consulted for release dates, songwriting credits and album listings, together with the website, Rock's Backpages.

[6] He subsequently wrote articles about all aspects of popular culture and music for RAM, Billboard, Roadrunner and a range of national and international magazines and newspapers.

In 1985, he became editor of the Australian edition of Rolling Stone and two years later was in a partnership which took over the franchise.