Overview
This pop culture history takes 12 legendary songs and, with a staggering wealth of detail and unprecedented understanding, provides an extended history of each. The circumstances under which each was written and first performed are explained and their musical and lyric content are explored. Those who were responsible for making these songs famous and performers who have left their unique marks on them are also identified. Variations in style, classic and obscure versions, brilliantly original interpretations, and ghastly travesties in the performance lifetime of each song are discussed. Also included are revelations of facts, such as Herman Hupfeld, who wrote ""As Time Goes By"", had a much bigger hit with ""When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba""; Billy Strayhorn wrote about 'a week in Paris' in ""Lush Life"" when he was a teenager and had never been to any city larger than Pittsburgh; and the first-ever public performance of ""I Got Rhythm"", sung by Ethel Merman, featured Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Jimmy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller.
Full Product Details
Author: Will Friedwald
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Imprint: Chicago Review Press
Dimensions:
Width: 0.60cm
, Height: 15.20cm
, Length: 22.80cm
Weight: 0.557kg
ISBN: 9781556525575
ISBN 10: 1556525575
Pages: 416
Publication Date: 01 September 2004
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Friedwald's writing, both erudite and funny, complements the standards he so clearly loves, like melody set to the perfect lyric. -- Entertainment Weekly
Friedwald's writing, both erudite and funny, complements the standards he so clearly loves, like melody set to the perfect lyric. -- Entertainment Weekly Friedwald s writing, both erudite and funny, complements the standards he so clearly loves, like melody set to the perfect lyric. Entertainment Weekly Valuable and absorbing. . . . It persuasively and sometimes thrillingly makes a case for the canon of American popular standards as a great, finely wrought musical literature. --Stephen Holden, The New York Times Book Review
Friedwald s writing, both erudite and funny, complements the standards he so clearly loves, like melody set to the perfect lyric. Entertainment Weekly Friedwald's writing, both erudite and funny, complements the standards he so clearly loves, like melody set to the perfect lyric. --Entertainment Weekly Valuable and absorbing. . . . It persuasively and sometimes thrillingly makes a case for the canon of American popular standards as a great, finely wrought musical literature. --Stephen Holden, The New York Times Book Review
Author Information
Will Friedwald writes about jazz and popular music for The Wall Street Journal, where he has written the weekly column The Jazz Scene since 2010. He is the author of eight books on music and popular culture, has received ten Grammy Award nominations for album notes and production, and is internationally recognized as a leading authority on jazz and adult pop music, as well as Broadway shows, jazz and pop vocalists, big bands, and classic American pop.
