New York ? The Beach Boys. Frank Sinatra. Liberace.

Sonically, the trio shared little – from the California group’s soaring harmonies to Sinatra’s saloon singing to Liberace’s marshmallow soft vocals. But their offstage antics were music to the ears of the FBI, where all three became the subject of muckraking files in the agency’s Washington headquarters.

The portfolios contain innuendo and allegations, with the occasional revelation thrown in. The Beach Boys’ penchant for psychedelic drugs and Sinatra’s alleged sex parties with President John F. Kennedy are old news.

But who knew of Liberace’s reputed fondness for gambling? The file on Wladziu Valentino Liberace reports that the rhinestone-worshipping Las Vegas entertainer was betting with a bookie in blue-collar Buffalo for years.

Celebrities and criminals, rock stars and mob stars, athletes and artists – scores of high-profile Americans have their very own FBI file, a bold-faced universe rife with dirt and scandal. It’s no surprise that gossip columnists such as Walter Winchell turn up as sources.

The files chronicle mass marketer Walt Disney and mass murderer Ted Bundy, comic genius Groucho Marx and cosmic genius Albert Einstein. There are reports of canoodling (although the FBI prefers “extramarital affairs”), heavy boozing, mob ties, drug use and the rest of the requisite dish.

The sheer volume became clear in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press for every FBI “High Visibility Memorandum” filed between 1974 and 2005, allowing a lengthy traipse through the lives of celebrities from A (Louis Armstrong) to Kaye (Danny) to Z (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). The AP’s request produced more than 500 redacted memos totaling nearly 1,500 pages.

The memos even contain information never made public. The February 2001 paperwork on film director Otto Preminger’s file mentioned “all of the information on Preminger’s desire to be a source for the FBI is being withheld.”

Until now.

In the FBI’s files, Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame never expire. Instead, as his memo noted, the 38 pages about the artist’s film company and a 1968-69 investigation are there for eternity.

Jimmy Hoffa’s daughter asked for the files regarding her long-missing dad. James Earl Ray, the assassin who killed Martin Luther King Jr., filed more than 50 FOIA requests from 1977 to ’95 on a variety of subjects – including one seeking records about the FBI’s electronic surveillance of King’s widow.

Sinatra’s file generated national headlines upon its 1998 release, as much for its lack of headline-making material as for anything it contained.

The presence of a file or a memo doesn’t necessarily mean the subject was targeted for an investigation.

“Celebrity files can be tricky to understand,” said FBI historian John Fox. “They can be collections of information gathered from other files. … Louis Armstrong is a good example of that. It would be incorrect to say the FBI investigated him.”

The FBI won’t divulge its exact number of files, but estimates are that it could total more than 6 million. The agency has long maintained that its era of surveillance for political purposes is over, reflecting changes that followed FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s death in 1972.

The high visibility memorandums are generated for a number of reasons: the notoriety of the requester, whether it’s a high-ranking government official or a high-profile Hollywood type; if the request could reveal improper FBI activities; and if the request comes from a story-seeking journalist.

While it might seem the last group would make the most requests, journalists lagged far behind in their filings, according to FBI records. Prisoners and private citizens outpaced the requests from the news media.

While the subjects are alive, the FBI only releases public source information: news clippings and other items already available. The full files, for both celebrities and common citizens, are not made public until after death for privacy reasons.