Irving Berlin Books

Irving Berlin was a national treasure and this book celebrates him in style. In the days when music was still civilized Berlin was king. He caught the mood of this country like no other composer. It's fun to browse through this gem over and over.

This book is for the Intermediate Pianist (I'd say level 4-5 if you're comparing it by the Alfred lesson books.) The arrangements are in their entirety, but simplified for the Intermediate Pianist. Easy to follow notation and lyrics; my family loves to sing along while I play these classic tunes.

This book with its simple illustrations will allow me to teach this spiritual patriotic song to my music students.

My Toddler Montessori class loves this book. We usually start reading and singing it the beginning of the school year with very young 2 year olds. Usually by Christmas all of the children know most of the words and can sing it. Parents can not believe their child can sing this song and grandparents love it! Sorry it has gone out of print, we have purchased extra's as even board books that are really loved can not with stand more than a year with a class of 2 year olds!

Selected this book for my grandchildren since its content is nothing they'll be taught in school.

This comes with a CD of Barbra Streisand singing God Bless America - which is great (and I am not a huge Barbra fan). The illustrations are wonderful and do a great job translating the lyrics of this classic song.

Most patriotic children's books get sappy or trite ... but not this one. The words are merely the lyrics of the great song. However, the illustrations that bring those words to life create a wonderful, colorful celebration of our country, without being overly sentimental. They are so well done they stir up feelings nonetheless. When you turn the page to the fireworks over The Statue of Liberty, goosebumps are guaranteed. My kids loved the family trip across the U.S. This is Lynn Munsinger at her best! I highly recommend this book over any other I've ever seen.

This little book is wonderful. I have used it for inspirational programs for the American Legion Auxiliary. Anyone who has faith in the USA should have a copy. It will restore your faith in God and in this great land of ours. Makes a great gift, too.

This book took me back to 1st grade when we were still allowed to sing "God Bless America" and other historic songs that kids today don't even know because they mention the word GOD! A wonderful little book, it reminded me of how far we've come and how high we've climbed but also how far we've come down the other side of the hill. I truly wish that our kids don't have to be ignorant of the heritage that allowed the foundation of this great country of ours, and that heritage is grounded in the Bible. This book is a gentle reminder of that basic truth. I'm glad my wife picked this book up for me, she picked a definite winner.

Whether conservative or liberals, we all cannot deny our country was founded based on Christian values. Humble and brave... During this period of confusions, and feelings of losses....this book brings out the best in America's ideals, values and perserverance. Great for gifts to the ones you love.

We need to put this book in the hands of every student in Elem., High School and college. This book tells of the heritage of our country, and why God has blessed America. If we want America to continue being blessed by God we need to heed the lessons from history.

Jerome Kern was not one to compliment other composers. However, when he was asked to assess Irving Berlin's place in American music, Kern replied that Berlin WAS American music. Not too long ago, the A&E channel did two "Classroom" broadcasts about Berlin's life; and by a coincidence, several items concerning this prolific composer have recently come my way. I want to share one of them with you.

It is a wonderful book from publisher Alfred A. Knopf titled "The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin," edited by Robert Kimball and Linda Emmet (one of the composer's three daughters). Now, considering that this man wrote well over a thousand songs, that is quite a bit of material for a single volume. But this one measures roughly 11" by 12" and holds 530 pages, which hold three columns of text. In this way, we get the lyrics to 1,200 songs for which he wrote both words and the music (only a few early songs were set to words by others).

The organization is chronological and intelligently packaged. Unlike Rodgers, Kern and Gershwin, Berlin wrote for Tin Pan Alley as well as for the stage. Therefore the editors have grouped the lyrics by "Songs" that were not intended for a specific show or film and by songs that were. So for 1914, for example, you will get all the independent songs composed that year in one chapter and those written for "Watch Your Step" the same year in a separate chapter. Even more welcome are the lyrics to many songs that were never published! It makes fascinating reading to surmise why these had to wait until this book came along to see the light of day.

To make this book even more valuable, each song is given a little preface concerning copyright dates and other items of interest to the American musical historian. And you will love the full-page photographs that stand at the start of each chapter. There is also an introductory essay and a very useful chronology at the start of the book, while the index at the end can help you locate in the body of the book any song by title with no trouble. So while Berlin's lyrics might not be as clever as those of Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart or Ira Gershwin, many of them will bring back memories of how Americans felt almost from the start to the finish of the last century.

(Take note. Knopf also has available similar tomes for the lyrics of Porter, Hart, and I. Gershwin. Each one is a definite Grabbit.

The problem with pop-tune anthologies is that song lyrics have to be heard, not read, and only with their music. Especially so with an Irving Berlin, who did nearly all his work for the theater and films, and for whom the presentation was as important as the song. (Picture "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" without Ziegfeld's beauties -- impossible.) And the fact is Berlin's lines could be flat-out flat-footedly corny. "A melody mellow/Played on a cello" can only provoke giggles in those unfamiliar with the songs, which I fear is the norm these days; at his worst he's downright clueless. (As in his proposed jingle for an unproduced NBC spectacular: "Everybody step,/Have a drink of Coca-Cola -- /It's the finest pepperola...." Pepsi-Cola?) But this is the problem with comprehensiveness. There are too many "rag" songs and "coon" songs and "step-step-step" songs, too many singing musical notes and dancing edibles, too much high-flown love treacle, too little of the poetry and wit that marked golden-age pop songwriting at its finest. Even the most interesting ones like "Sadie Salome (Go Home)", fresh with their impudent suggestiveness, can only hint at their marvels. And the chronological layout inevitably sets up the drab finish of the decades of verbal noodling, reclusion and despair. Yes he wrote catchy tunes in the early days, but Berlin didn't really come into his own until late, with his thirties revues, and the Fred-and-Ginger scores, and "Holiday Inn", and "This is the Army", and "Easter Parade", and his one true masterpiece, "Annie Get Your Gun." These are works to be savored, not anthologized. And it took a special talent to bring out Berlin's real measure: listen to Blue Eyes and TD and their larger-than-life rendition of "Be Careful, It's My Heart" to know it. Moreover Red Norvo's "Remember" and Les Brown's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and the sumptuous instrumental "New Amsterdam Roof" from "Easter Parade" (on the Rhino soundtrack album) make the strong case that Berlin is at his best without words.

That said, there can be no doubting the completeness, the care, the diligence that went into this collection (even if the phrase "No music is known to survive" gets a little tiresome), the obvious love and respect for this show-biz titan. Alas, perhaps the only way to appreciate his greatness is to go back in time to experience it, a further frustration of books like this.

I was already a Berlin fan before I got this book. Some of his lyrics are known to almost everyone; he "is" American music. I love to read, hear, and sing his words. But the overwelming bonus of this book is to find out that he wrote so many bad lyrics along with his successes; and I mean downright lousey. I treasure knowing this because I am now aware that A) Writing fabulous lyrics is difficult for ANYONE! - and - B) Writing bad lyrics did not stop Irving Berlin; he just kept churning out material and some of it is immortal. This book is wonderful, particularly for those of us who write songs.

WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THE SOUNDTRACK I GREW UP WITH..INSTEAD GOT ROSEMARY CLOONEY SINGING THE SONGS FROM THE FILM BY HERSELF..AND PEGGY LEE WITH THE OTHERS IN THE FILM.....THERE MUST BE A SOUNTRACK SOMEWHERE OF THE ORIGINAL THEATER VERSION...!!!!

I have tried to find this album for years.

White Christmas is my all time faviorate movie and to find the CD that goes to the DVD.

It has all the songs and titles from the movie with some extras well.

I would suggest this to anyone who loves this movie.

For whatever reason, White Christmas never seems to get its due credit as one of the great Christmas movies of all-time. OK, so it may not be strictly a Christmas film, this story about two army buddies who help out their old General by putting on a show at his country inn is sparkling entertainment with great songs and all the glitz and glamour of classic Hollywood musicals. This little hardcover book commemorates the 50th anniversary of the film with lots of fun trivia and information about the film and it's stars.

Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas in 1941 for the film Holiday Inn. He was asked to write songs for different holidays and while the film had many great songs, White Christmas is the one that has become immortal. It has gone on to become not only the biggest selling Christmas song of all-time, but one of the biggest selling songs period. The book begins with a synopsis of the film and then presents brief bios of the cast: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger and Mary Wickes, as well as bios of Berlin, and director Michael Curtiz. You'll learn that Crosby was one of the original financers of the development of Audio Tape and that Kaye was a tireless volunteer for UNICEF.

Sprinkled like shiny tinsel throughout the book are little "Snow it all" fun facts and trivia about winter and snow, such as how to make snow cream, and how to make the perfect snowman or snow angels. This is accompanied by beautiful photography from this Technicolor extravaganza. Finally a CD is included with the book that features three rendition of White Christmas by Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Vince Gill. It's a marvelous little Christmas collectible, one that anyone who loves the movie will treasure.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

I got this book because I like books that cover a single entity (one song, one movie, etc.). I ended up skimming it, though, after the introduction, which was a mess that rambled without any structure from paragraph to paragraph. By skimming the rest of the book, I was able to glean several really interesting tidbits I wanted to know about (such as the fact that "I'll Be Home for Christmas" was released a year after "White Christmas," clearly to cash in on the latter's success), but I didn't have to endure the style (or, for that matter, the typeface, which I don't see that often and which tripped me up visually a few times). Also, perhaps it's the author's youth, but there are small but nagging discrepancies here and there (for instance, he doesn't know the distinction between a Christmas song and a carol). And his opinions seem wedged into what is otherwise an objective look at the history of a song -- I frankly found myself not caring what this guy thought -- I just wanted to know what he knew. I'd say get it if "White Christmas" is your favorite song and if you don't already know too much about it or about Irving Berlin, but otherwise find yourself a good Berlin bio and enjoy that.

This is one most lively, intelligent and orginal non-fiction books I've read in years. Not only does Rosen chronicle superbly Irving Berlin's amazing rags-to-riches story and the story of his most successful song but through both illuminates a larger story of how jewish immigrants - with great creative energy and drive for success and inclusion - transformed American culture. The role that WW II played in the song's massive success is also fascinating (and timely).

It's time to take a good look at the most popular song ever, top selling and most frequently recorded. _White Christmas: The Story of an American Song_ (Scribner) by Jody Rosen not only tells about the song everyone has heard so many times that no one really listens to it anymore, but also about the songwriter, American twentieth century history, and Tin Pan Alley and its descendants. It's a lot of baggage to load upon a pop song, but it is an amazing little song, and the book has a brisk story told with real love of the music and how it was shaped and how it shaped us.

It's a good thing that Irving Berlin didn't write about a Christmas "just like the ones I used to know." He was born Israel Baline in 1888 in a bleak town in Siberia. Russian peasants, drunk with Christmas cheer, often used the holiday as an excuse for pogroms against the Jews, and his first memory is of his house being burned down. Berlin got no formal musical training, but produced hundreds of songs. In January 1940, Berlin worked over the weekend on a song he became very enthusiastic about. He bustled into his office that Monday morning and said, "I want you to take down a song I wrote over the weekend. Not only is it the best song _I_ ever wrote, it's the best song _anybody_ ever wrote." Christmas 1942 was the first that masses of Americans, soldiers and sailors all over the world, would spend away from home, and could only dream of Christmases just like the ones they used to know. Crosby's version was shipped to them in recordings, and it topped the Hit Parade as a patriotic anthem, displacing "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." The song signaled that recordings and performers were in and sheet music and songwriters were out. In 1957, Berlin tried to squelch an Elvis Presley version, but couldn't.

Rosen's clear, fully researched book is an essential biography of an American song classic, and will improve your understanding every time you inevitably hear the song again. It encompasses important ideas about the history of modern music, Jewish influence and assimilation, patriotism in song, and the evolution of celebrating Christmas. It is not strictly a Christmas book, for it is about much more than just the season. But it would be fine for those looking for serious and interesting reading for the holidays, or as a gift book for readers who think they have already heard all the song has to say.

This is a pretty interesting book regarding the writing of and eventual huge success of an American popular song.
The author gives good background information about Irving Berlin, the song's composer, plus an interesting look at the history of popular music in general during the days of the great composers.
Also of interest is the various incarnations of the song, from classic era songsters to more contemporary artists and including the use of it in various motion pictures and other venues.

I thought that this book was just outstanding. I would give it 6 stars if I could. I thought that the writing was excellent (I found myself frequently flipping back a few pages just to re-read certain passages over again), and that it was endlessly fascinating. The material on the relationship of Jews to Christmas is particularly interesting, as is the author's discussion of the myth of the "recent" commercialization of Christmas. He treats both Berlin and the song itself in a clear-headed yet loving way. I cannot recommend this little book highly enough and I congratulate (and thank) the author for a marvelously entertaining book.

It is amazing to think that there were people walking about the streets of Hollywood and Broadway with those fabulous songs ringing in their heads yearning to be written down for the first time. and Wilfred Sheed writes like a happy man expounding on a theme at a slightly tipsy dinner table late at night. I read the whole thing in two evenings.

Lots of good insights in the reviews of this book. The writing style is circuitous, occas. redundant, but I think Mr. Sheed was just awash in so much information, so many memories & emotions, such affection for the music and the people who blessed the world with it, that I can forgive him.

Kathryn Atwood's 11/25/07 review is almost precisely what I'd have written if she hadn't already. I love her sentence, "Sheed's insights....will deliver many 'aha!' moments"--and they certainly did for me.

The book kept my interest enough to finish it in 5-to-20 minute increments over 3 miserable days/nights of the worst stomach virus of my life when every shred of my being just wanted to roll over and die, and that's quite a feat.

I'm probably prejudiced in Mr. Sheed's favor because he obviously shares my special affection for some of the comparatively less-well-known songs: Gershwin's "Soon", and Kern's "I'm Old-Fashioned", among others. He refers to them lovingly several times.

On the other hand, If he'd mentioned what just might be my absolute favorite song of the era, the 1936 Link/Marvell/Strachey masterpiece, "These Foolish Things", I'd probably have given him 5 stars. (Just kidding. The writers were all Brits and I guess he figured he had enough to deal with on this side of the Atlantic.)

(Have any of you, BTW, ever heard the Ella/Louis 7+ minute performance with all the exquisite verses?

First daffodils and long excited cables,
And candlelight on little corner tables..."

The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations
Silk stockings thrown aside, dance invitations...

The smile of Garbo and the scent of roses,
The waiters whistling as the last bar closes....

And still my heart has wings....)

What an era that was: what energy/synergy/symbiosis/serendipity! I can understand why anyone trying to chronicle the embarrassment of riches that gushed forth from so many sources in such a short time might have a hard time keeping their words from kinda tumbling over each other now and then.

"The House That George Built" by Wilfred Sheed seems at first glance to be the perfect primer to the story of our greatest American songwriters. Not since composer Alec Wilder's groundbreaking reference guide "American Popular Song" has there been a comparable effort to tie together the compositional timelines of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern & Cole Porter, plus all of the lesser known songwriters they influenced. The main four were somewhat engaged in a friendly competition for top bragging rights as they wrote their greatest hits all about the same time- and for audiences as diverse as Broadway, Hollywood, and the fellow at the parlor piano just looking to learn the latest Tin Pan Alley hit.

From the introductory chapter, Sheed speaks to the reader as if he's across from you at the dinner table with a brandy, ready to regale you with wonderful tales and little known tidbits. And for the most part throughout the book, a compendium of newly written material plus essays that first appeared in Esquire, the New York Times, Time magazine and other print media sources, Sheed delivers: for instance, we learn that the famous "Street Of Dreams" was the focal avenue of the jazz world, Manhattan's 52nd Street; "Laura", the gorgeous movie theme by David Raksin with lyrics by Johnny Mercer was the one song that Cole Porter had wished he had written himself; Burton Lane was discovered playing piano as a lad by Gershwin's mother and soon became a protégé of the master; and so on. But in order for us to understand our famous subjects, Sheed must get inside their private lives, and in most cases, inside their heads. He gets a lot of this interesting information thanks to help from friends and fellow musical aficionados like Wilder, Michael Feinstein, Ann Ronnell (composer of "Willow Weep For Me" and Gershwin's friend), Cy Coleman, Lane and many wives and offspring of his subjects. So we also learn that both Harold Arlen and Larry Hart (Richard Rodgers' first lyricist) were manic depressives; Jerome Kern had a penchant for risky gambling; Irving Berlin had low self-esteem; Rodgers became an uncontrollable alcoholic; and Cole Porter had a surprising religious side in his later years despite his long time penchant for a gay party lifestyle. Admittedly, some of this dishy stuff reads a bit like tabloid fodder, but Sheed offers it as matter-of-factly as possible, presenting to us the human side of these very creative but often tortured geniuses.

Sheed shows us how our four main protagonists (Berlin/Gershwin/Kern/Porter) fit into the transition from classical music into jazz, America's own music, through the intermingling of African, European and Jewish music traditions. The needs and demands of the public also dictated how and what each of these men would write, for Broadway songs would have different expectations next to songs written for Hollywood films. Sheed is right on target, but the slight drawback is that his chapters tend to make for slow reading. Yes, the psychological ramifications are interesting, but we do not really need to hear every detail about Kern's family or Porter's school life, and it often takes a bit of time to get to the stories we really want to hear about- the writing of these popular song masterpieces. After all, we expected this to be a book about music and its history.

The reader happens across an occasional lovely nugget of wisdom, such as Kern's analogy of songwriting being akin to fishing: "...you may feel twenty tugs on your line and only one of them will be a fish worth keeping, and it might sometimes take a while to know which one." But you'll often come across a tedious bit, like this run-on sentence about Rodgers: "From then on, his parents would magically cease to matter until they later showed up in the orchestra seats, warmly applauding their son- nice people, after all, in that context, who, rare among artists' parents, thoroughly approved of his chosen life: a life that he, perhaps in return, proceeded to keep as outwardly square as he possibly could, dressing and comporting himself like a banker, hiding any private sins in the best private manner, and eventually courting a full length a most suitable and ladylike young woman named Dorothy Feiner, to whom he tried vociferously to be faithful, for a while." Eek. This rambling type of prose gets difficult to sift through after a while, and is really more suited towards story `spinning' than delivering facts. Actually, with Garrison Keillor's warm praise for Sheed's book (front and center on the cover), it's easy to see a similarity between Keillor's Wobegon stories and Sheed's type of storytelling.

Sheed also has an annoying habit of overusing a literary device- a composer's own song titles as a reference to his own life situation. "By the end of it, Kern had learned, if nothing else, how to `let himself go'..." "Linda (Porter's wife) was still `nice to come home to' occasionally and `love' in one's fashion." I guess one could chalk this up to the material coming from different sources. The use of such a device wouldn't normally appear so often in a book, and it reads a bit too punny.

The book does have a well researched Appendix that cites numerous little known songs from the `two hit wonder' composers and songwriting teams of the period. Sheed sets a condition of two bonafide hits in order for these lesser known composers to be included in the listing. I found myself humming the tunes as I read the titles, forgotten gems like Isham Jones's "It Had To Be You", "Fools Rush In" by Rube Bloom, and Gene DePaul's "I'll Remember April".

To sum it all up: this book appears to be geared toward the intellectual set (most likely the type who get most of Porter's lyric double-entendres), and not the casual reader. For those who are musicians or interested in this particular genre, I do recommend giving the book a try. At the beginning I thought I would really love this book; by the end I realized I only liked and respected it. Despite the book's shortcomings, Sheed obviously has great love for these songs and the period from which they came. There is a lot of worthwhile material here- just be prepared that you'll have to dig for it.

I have to agree with many of the other reviewers that refer to the author's "cute" and "self-absorbed" writing style. I could forgive that, however--the man did actually meet and/or know many of the figures he writes about, so his pedestal-perching is somewhat deserved. What I can't overlook is how he glosses over what I thought this book would be all about--the songs themselves. He drops titles here and there, but rarely goes into any depth regarding their creation or impact. More space is devoted to Cole Porter's wardrobe than his entire score for "High Society." If you're looking for a song-by-song breakdown of the impact these men had on popular music, this ain't it. If you're looking for a more gossipy "dish" on what composer did what and where with whom and what they were wearing, you will not be disappointed.

There are some wonderful stories and insights in this book, but the reader has to battle through Sheed's annoyingly 'cute' prose to get to them. If you can ignore his style, you will learn new things about each of the great American songwriters. The chapters on some of the less heralded composers - such as Lane and Whiting - are major contributions to our understanding of an art form that had a glorious but all too brief flowering.

When I received the book, of course I had to sit down at the organ and start playing. Well, I relived many movies, years, memories, and thoughts while I played the well printed pages. Some fakebooks are printed so small, with me being a senior citizen,I can't read them. Not this one tho. It has great fill in chords also. The paper and cover is made of good quality stock to last many years--just as Irving Berlin's muic has done.

Remember, this is a fake book, so it works best for those who can work in that mode. If you love the music from Astaire-Rogers movies, "Easter Parade", "Holiday Inn", "Annie Get Your Gun", or great American standards from Tin Pan Alley, then this is for you. Like the Beatles Fake Book published by Hal Leonard, the chord suggestions are well selected, fully specified, always appropriate for the corresponding passage, and will appeal to "mature" fakers. Great price too. I've gotten lots of mileage out this book.

I have owned this particular Irving Berlin songbook for many years now.

I have always enjoyed playing the songs from this book on the piano and have gone back to it many times since the beginning.

Many of Berlin's lesser-known (and lesser-appreciated) melodies are included. (Honestly, I don't play those so much.) But his more brilliant and best-known songs are not left out of the collection (songs such as Always, What'll I Do, Remember, A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody, Blue Skies, Heat Wave, Puttin' On The Ritz, Cheek To Cheek, Let's Face The Music And Dance, White Christmas, They Say It's Wonderful, etc. -- too many to name!) and I think that makes this particular songbook well-worth having.

My playing style is very basic:

I play the melody line with my right hand and the chords in a simple back and forth bass with my left and am satisfied because the melodies (the obviously good ones) don't need any fancy piano-style adornment.

I recommend this to any piano player who loves Irving Berlin's songs.

Some of the page numbers are out of order in this book so if you are using it in performance and need to find something quickly, you may be out of luck!

The notation is way too small for comfortable sight-reading. I have tried a couple of times, but have set this book aside in favor of my Warner fake books which have a very comfortable viewing size.

This is a beautifully written remembrance of one of the world's greatest songwriters. Berlin fans will welcome the personal insight, warmth and vivid detail that author Barrett provides. A recluse for the last 25 years of his life, Berlin has been an enigma to many, and this book provides many of the intimate details so sorely lacking in other biographies of this American treasure

A memoir by the daughter of Irving Berlin, arguably the best of all American composers and indisputably its premiere songwriter. I read this book hoping that certain nagging mysteries would be solved, especially about Irving Berlin's compositional/creative processes. For who could but wonder how a musically "illiterate" man (he could neither read or write music, hadn't studied harmony, etc.) could create so many timeless masterpieces, so many miracles of musical invention? And who would better be able to answer these questions than the songwriters first born? Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the absence of any insights into these matters. Instead, Ms. Barrett deals with the mundane, the day-to-day stuff. We learn what it's like to be a rich seven year old in New York City instead of how "How Deep Is The Ocean?" came into the world. The book is about her, not about its title character, and that was a disappointment.