[2] Selvin has published articles in Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, and Melody Maker, and has written liner notes for dozens of recorded albums.

[5] Selvin soon wangled a backstage pass for a show at The Fillmore[3] and submitted his first piece to the Chronicle's Sunday Datebook in 1969.

[6] Selvin left the Chronicle for a brief, unsuccessful effort in undergraduate studies at the University of California, Riverside where he wrote for the school paper.

In 1972, Selvin was hired as an assistant to Chronicle music critic John L. Wasserman, and began to write for both the daily and the Sunday newspaper issues, filing reviews of local shows with rock and roll as well as rhythm and blues performances.

[6] A half year later, one of Selvin's more infamous[7] pieces ran about Bob Dylan's first concert in San Francisco after his conversion to Christianity.

Anesthetized by his new-found beliefs, Dylan has written some of the most banal, uninspired and inventionless songs of his career for his Jesus phase.

Richardson, at that time the music critic writing for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, evoked a written response from Selvin saying "You shoulda been around when it was really flowing; cases of liquor at Christmas, lavish parties with hookers and drugs (I remember one Lady Sings the Blues affair in particular).

"[11] Regarding conflict of interest issues that may result from a critic and a musician becoming friends, Selvin responded, "We are encouraged to develop sources as confidants.

"[11] On May 26, 2009, the Great American Music Hall hosted a retirement party for Selvin featuring appearances by "Big Al" Anderson, Booker T. Jones, Charlie Musselwhite, John Handy, Bonnie Raitt, Al Jardine, Bud E. Luv, Prairie Prince, Chris Isaak and Scott Matthews.

This is the secret story of the top Mafia chief behind the New York City nightclub made world-famous by the Twist dance craze.

He also co-authored with Epic Records chairman L.A. Reid, Sing To Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next, for Harper Collins in 2016.

His Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues, published in April 2014 by Counterpoint Press, was called "a masterpiece of research, writing and investigative literature about one of the most influential and little-known songwriters in rock history" by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

[20] His Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter in the Grateful Dead's Long, Strange Trip (with Pamela Turley) is a controversial insiders tell-all account of the twenty years of in-fighting after the death of bandleader Jerry Garcia that preceded the emotional reunion of the "core four" surviving members in historic concerts in California and Chicago in July 2016.

[21] The New York Times cited Selvin's "blunt, unpretentious and brisk" style in their review of "Hollywood Eden," his 2021 West Coast pop origin story centered on the University High School class of '58, whose members included Jan and Dean, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Johnston, Sandy Nelson, Kim Fowley, even Gidget.

Selvin sang as part of the "Critics Chorus" on one cut of the band's recording Stranger Than Fiction,[26] and again joined the chorus for a performance in Bangor, Maine, in May 1998 where reviewer Kev Quigley noted Selvin's 30-second jumping, screaming vocal solo within the band's profanity-filled version of "Louie Louie".

[27] Selvin wrote one of the chapters of the band's book Mid-life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude, published in 1994.

In 2003, Selvin served as a consultant and appeared on screen in the TV movie Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest, covering the subject of the music world's activity in politics.

"[3] In July 2020, Selvin curated a photo exhibit, “California Rocks!,” for the Sonoma Valley Art Museum featuring work by Jim Marshall, Michael Zagaris, Baron Wolman, Henry Diltz, Joel Bernstein, others, interrupted by the pandemic.