Readers Recommend was hosted and written by paid staffers of The Guardian up until August 23, 2012 when volunteers from the community took over writing the columns, except for a short two-month period when Peter Kimpton and Marta Bausells wrote the columns.
Below you’ll find the volunteer gurus who have taken the chair at Readers Recommend and at the Song Bar. Below that is a history of all the staff writers in the years before the volunteer era.
♦ Abahachi ♦ AFictionHabit ♦ ajostu ♦ Alaric ♦ AliMunday ♦ amylee ♦ angryirishpunk ♦ Anonymous ♦ AssameseGuy87 ♦ attwilightlarks ♦ barbryn ♦ Beltway Bandit ♦ bishbosh ♦ BlackCombe ♦ bluepeter ♦ Carpgate ♦ chippiparai ♦ Chris Wheatley ♦ Chris7572 ♦ DaddyPig ♦ DarceysDad ♦ deanofromoz ♦ DeepThroatSinger ♦ DiscoMonster (Fuel) ♦ drunkenpanda ♦ EnglishOutlaw ♦ EspressoBongo ♦ exiledMan ♦ Fintan28 ♦ Flatfrog ♦ FMastropolo ♦ George Boyland (sonofwebcore) ♦ HopelessCase ♦ Hoshino Sakura ♦ Isabelle Forshaw ♦ Leaveitallbehind ♦ llamalpaca ♦ Loud Atlas ♦ LyntonCrosby ♦ magicman ♦ Maki ♦ Marconius7 ♦ megadom ♦ misterbadexample ♦ Mnemonic ♦ MussoliniHeadkick ♦ Nicko ♦ Nilpferd ♦ Noodsy ♦ nosuchzone ♦ OliveButler ♦ outoftheblue ♦ Pairubu ♦ ParaMhor ♦ pejepeine ♦ philipphilip99 ♦ Pop Off! (DJ Bear) ♦ pussel ♦ Ravi Raman ♦ saneshane ♦ ScarletsOHywel ♦ severin ♦ ShivSidecar ♦ Shoegazer ♦ SkippyisaCult ♦ SongBarLandlord ♦ Suzi ♦ swawilg ♦ SweetHomeAlabama ♦ TatankaYotanka ♦ thoughtballoons ♦ tincanman ♦ treefrogdemon ♦ Uncleben ♦ uneasy listening ♦ vastariner ♦ vikingbones ♦ Vikingchild ♦ Violet Vivid ♦
The volunteer gurus with the most number of columns are George Boyland (47), Marconius7 (46), severin (40), DiscoMonster (37), magicman (35), Maki (30), Loud Atlas (24), ParaMhor (24), Suzi (23), treefrogdemon (22) and EnglishOutlaw (21).
The original Readers Recommend column was launched by Dorian Lynskey on September 9, 2005 when he posted a topic – Change – and asked readers to come up with songs on that topic. The following week the first column was published in the print edition of The Guardian as well as on the Guardian website. Lynskey helmed the feature until 2008 and it was then managed by several different writers over the years.
The table below lists the staff writers for the Guardian, when they wrote their columns and their total number of columns.
| Guru | First Column | Last Column | # of Columns |
| Dorian Lynskey | Sept. 16, 2005 | Apr. 11, 2008 | 124 |
| Maddy Costa | Apr. 18, 20081 | Feb. 6, 2009 | 43 |
| Rob Fitzpatrick2 | Feb. 13, 2009 | Dec. 24, 2010 | 33 |
| Paul MacInnes2 | May 29, 2009 | Nov. 19, 2010 | 63 |
| Jon Dennis3 | Jan. 14, 2011 | Aug. 16, 2012 | 77 |
| Laura Barton4 | Jan. 6, 2006 | Jan. 6, 2006 | 1 |
| Sophie Heawood4 | May 26, 2006 | June 2, 2006 | 2 |
| Dave Simpson4 | May 7, 2008 | June 7, 2012 | 5 |
| Paul Lester4 | Aug. 8, 2008 | Aug. 25, 2011 | 3 |
| Michael Hann4 | Apr. 12, 2012 | Apr. 12, 2012 | 1 |
| Peter Kimpton5 | Nov. 7, 2013 | Jan. 19, 2014 | 6 |
| Marta Bausells5 | Nov. 14, 2013 | Jan. 16, 2014 | 4 |
- The date is of Maddy Costa’s first regular column. She had done four previous columns subbing for Dorian while he took a break. The total number of columns includes her stints as a substitute columnist. She had two guest columns in 2006 and two in 2007.
- Throughout 2009 and 2010, Rob Fitzpatrick and Paul MacInnes alternated writing the column.
- When Jon Dennis took over in January 2014, the column was discontinued in the print edition of the Guardian and became an online only feature.
- Laura Barton, Sophie Heawood, Dave Simpson, Paul Lester and Michael Hann were all substitute columnists and never regular columnists.
- When Jon Dennis left, the column was taken over by volunteer gurus from the community except for a short interregnum from Nov. 7, 2013 to Jan. 19, 2014 when staffers Peter Kimpton and Marta Bausells alternated writing the column.