Review

Music to me is transformative and, as an unabashed lover of the Great American Songbook, books about the great composers and the development of their music are a joy to read. Irving Berlin was, of course, right at the center of the Songbook. His oeuvre is loaded with classics. Berlin (1888-1989) was born Israel ("Izzy") Baline in Russia, emigrated to America with his family in 1893 and wrote his first mega-hit in 1911 at the age of 21. That song was Alexander's Ragtime Band ("Come on and hear! Come on and hear!"). He said, "I wrote the whole thing in eighteen minutes." Many more followed over the years. Consider these: • Blue Skies • Always • What'll I Do? • Top Hat White Tie and Tails • Heat Wave • Say it Isn't So • White Christmas • Cheek to Cheek • Isn't This a Lovely Way • There's No Business Like Show Business • Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) • The Best Thing for You (Would be Me) • It's a Lovely Day Today • God Bless America • A Pretty Girl is Like a Memory • Doin' What Comes Natur'lly • Change Partners • Easter Parade • The Song is Ended (but the Melody Lingers on) • Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep) • I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm • The Girl That I Married • ...and many, many more But the real joy of this book was the little stories behind the songs. Like the following: ♪♪♪ A number was needed from Berlin for Anne Get Your Gun and several days later played one for Rogers, Hammerstein, and Logan. Several days later, Berlin threw it away because he read the facial expressions of this group as a negative. When they told him later that the song was great, Berlin's secretary had to recover it from the trash. That song was There's No Business Like Show Business, which would become the immortal anthem of show business. ♪♪♪ As the movie On The Avenue was being completed in 1936, producer Darryl Zanuck said that one of the numbers had to be cut. When he told Berlin which one, he wrote back to Zanuck and made a strong plea to keep it, and Zanuck finally relented. That song was I've Got My Love to Keep me Warm. ♪♪♪ Returning from England in 1939 with war on the horizon, Berlin wanted to do a song of peace and remembered a number that he had written 20 years earlier, but it needed some minor rework. On November 10, 1938, this song was sung for the first time. Its title was God Bless America. My late friend Armand ("Ardie") Deutsch was on a first-name basis with most of the top songwriters of the mid-20th century, but he told me that Irving Berlin was always Mister Berlin. This compact book about the man and his music will be catnip for music lovers.

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