With over 125 references to music, John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" almost cries for popular music as part of its instructional delivery. The teaching of popular music within the classroom responds to many of today's accepted practices: reader response, writing instruction, humanities exploration, multiliteracy, multiple intelligences, and environmental control. Within five minutes, a musical selection can involve students in any one of these effective practices. In this article, the author describes his use of music as a resource in teaching literature, contending that appropriately selected music instructionally paired with passages from literature evokes emotion, engagement, and comprehension and promotes learning.