Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs

Rating:
Summary: Charming
Review: This book is an eccentric, highly personal appreciation of "The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs." It is an easy read, as it is composed of short chapters with titles such as "George and Ira Gershwin," "Anatomy of the Popular Song," "Sheet Music, "Writing for Fred Astaire," and "Made in Hollywood: `As Time Goes By' and `Laura'." I found it extremely informative and charmingly written. The lists at the back are fun and provocative. Zinsser provides extensive (and entertaining) notes on his sources as well as a thorough index. This is a very subjective book with a highly personal viewpoint, but I would nonetheless recommend it to anyone with an interest in American popular song. I enjoyed this book a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Charming
Review: This book is an eccentric, highly personal appreciation of "The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs." It is an easy read, as it is composed of short chapters with titles such as "George and Ira Gershwin," "Anatomy of the Popular Song," "Sheet Music, "Writing for Fred Astaire," and "Made in Hollywood: 'As Time Goes By' and 'Laura'." I found it extremely informative and charmingly written. The lists at the back are fun and provocative. Zinsser provides extensive (and entertaining) notes on his sources as well as a thorough index. This is a very subjective book with a highly personal viewpoint, but I would nonetheless recommend it to anyone with an interest in American popular song. I enjoyed this book a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Can I give it a "6"?
Review: What a wonderful book! This is a book I wish I had written, if only to write the sentence "Seeing Guys and Dolls on opening night in 1950 was my nirvana as a musical comedy fan"! It's one long love letter to the great American songwriters, both composers and lyricists: the oft-written about Kern, Hammerstein, Berlin, the Gershwins, Porter, Arlen, Sondheim, Lerner, Loewe, Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, and the less-written about Dorothy Fields, Harburg, Youmans, Schwartz, Dietz, Warren, Weill, Styne, Comden/Green, Loesser, Cahn, Van Heusen, Kander, Ebb, Bock & Harnick. Though Zinsser is a pianist himself, he keeps the technical discussion to a minimum. He's dug up photographs I've never seen before: Frank Loesser sweating on a New York park bench; Barbra sitting on Jule Styne's lap; Johnny Mercer recording (I didn't know he was popular singer as well as gifted lyricist.) And the sheet music! He's included b&w pictures of dozens of vintage sheet music cover art: the Art Deco "Roberta"; "Just in Time" with '50's linear design motifs; a Toulouse-Lautrec knockoff for a '20's Rodgers and Hart song. Zinsser very interestingly keeps the biographical info to a bare minimum, concentrating on the melodic structure of the tune, the "rules" of song structure and how the rules were effectively broken; and the lyrics which are central to his appreciation of a song. He has lovingly captured an era I was born too late for but which lives on.

Rating:
Summary: Can I give it a "6"?
Review: What a wonderful book! This is a book I wish I had written, if only to write the sentence "Seeing Guys and Dolls on opening night in 1950 was my nirvana as a musical comedy fan"! It's one long love letter to the great American songwriters, both composers and lyricists: the oft-written about Kern, Hammerstein, Berlin, the Gershwins, Porter, Arlen, Sondheim, Lerner, Loewe, Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, and the less-written about Dorothy Fields, Harburg, Youmans, Schwartz, Dietz, Warren, Weill, Styne, Comden/Green, Loesser, Cahn, Van Heusen, Kander, Ebb, Bock & Harnick. Though Zinsser is a pianist himself, he keeps the technical discussion to a minimum. He's dug up photographs I've never seen before: Frank Loesser sweating on a New York park bench; Barbra sitting on Jule Styne's lap; Johnny Mercer recording (I didn't know he was popular singer as well as gifted lyricist.) And the sheet music! He's included b&w pictures of dozens of vintage sheet music cover art: the Art Deco "Roberta"; "Just in Time" with '50's linear design motifs; a Toulouse-Lautrec knockoff for a '20's Rodgers and Hart song. Zinsser very interestingly keeps the biographical info to a bare minimum, concentrating on the melodic structure of the tune, the "rules" of song structure and how the rules were effectively broken; and the lyrics which are central to his appreciation of a song. He has lovingly captured an era I was born too late for but which lives on.

Rating:
Summary: A "Must" Book For Those Who Enjoy Great Songs
Review: What enjoyment I find in this book!! It tells me all about the lives of the greatest songwriters the world has ever known...where they grew up, how they got into songwriting, what they wrote, who they wrote with, the movies and shows they did, and so much more. The era described extends from 1927 to the mid-sixties when rock arrived. During that period the greatest American songs were written. It is doubtful that the world will ever know another such a wonderful period or such songwriters. This is a book to treasure; to be read and reread if you remember the classic songs of that era.

Rating:
Summary: A Loving Look at the Creators of the Great American Songbook
Review: William Zinsser has had a lifelong love affair with the music of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood. This book reflects that love. Rather than a scholarly treatise, what Zinsser creates is a casual but quite complete stroll through the catalogue of the Great American Songbook using the great lyricists and composers as jumping off points. Occasional sidebars on such related topics as the structure of the classic song or the importance of sheet music add to the enjoyment and the wide scope of Zinsser's historical approach. Filled with wonderful photos of composers, lyricists and sheet music, this book is a treasure to read through and look at

A wonderful, kind book

Rating:
Summary: A loving look at a lost world
Review: William Zinsser's survey of the American popular song is an exceptional work, it revists and evokes the lost world of the popular song - when songs bridged generations and spoke of love and loss with grace, joy, sorrow, and occassionally, grandeur.

Not only does Zinsser give us the lives of the composers and lyricists examined, but he places their work in the context of its time, and for those who lived through the great age of American songwriting, he recreates the meaning of that music to Americans, and for those unlucky enough to be born later, he offers a guide to its many delights and pleasures. A winner of a book on every level. A must read for anyone who loves American popular music pre 1960.