Fake Book of the World's Favorite Songs - 4th Edition

Rating:
Summary: Good source of melodic lines
Review: I'm learning to play trumpet and this is an excellent book to help me learn to sight-read. It's fun to play familiar melodies and I can tell immediately when I'm messing up. Over 700 tunes for 16 bucks- you cant go wrong. Two thumbs up.

Rating:
Summary: Good source of melodic lines
Review: The Fake Book of the World's Favorite Songs is truly a fake title. Now I'm no musicologist -- just an amateur piano player and singer -- but the problem I see with this collection is that many of the pieces in are not songs. When was the last time you heard anyone sing "Semper Fidelis" by John Philip Sousa? And although the title suggests it is singable, there are no words to Tchaikovsky's "Andante Cantabile." The Triumphal March from Verdi's "Aida" is here -- but it never had lyrics. The Pizzicato Polka is a polka, not a song. Then there are songs given -- popular ethnic songs, such as "O Solo Mio" and "La Cucaracha," but no words are given. The scope of this collection is sweeping, if not uneven: foreign and domestic, classical and folk, children's songs and pop standards. But the bottom line is that not all the pieces are singable songs but instrumental pieces, and some that are genuinely songs, no words are given. Imagine "On, Wisconsin" is here, but no words are printed. How are people going to know that the Badgers have to "fight right through that line"? A more accurate title that Hal Leonard might consider is "Fake Book of the World's Favorite Melodies." Much better from Hal Leonard is the "Real Little Ultimate Fake Book," with over 1200 songs -- and every single one of them has the lyrics printed.

Rating:
Summary: A Misleading Title
Review: The Fake Book of the World's Favorite Songs is truly a fake title. Now I'm no musicologist -- just an amateur piano player and singer -- but the problem I see with this collection is that many of the pieces in are not songs. When was the last time you heard anyone sing "Semper Fidelis" by John Philip Sousa? And although the title suggests it is singable, there are no words to Tchaikovsky's "Andante Cantabile." The Triumphal March from Verdi's "Aida" is here -- but it never had lyrics. The Pizzicato Polka is a polka, not a song. Then there are songs given -- popular ethnic songs, such as "O Solo Mio" and "La Cucaracha," but no words are given. The scope of this collection is sweeping, if not uneven: foreign and domestic, classical and folk, children's songs and pop standards. But the bottom line is that not all the pieces are singable songs but instrumental pieces, and some that are genuinely songs, no words are given. Imagine "On, Wisconsin" is here, but no words are printed. How are people going to know that the Badgers have to "fight right through that line"? A more accurate title that Hal Leonard might consider is "Fake Book of the World's Favorite Melodies." Much better from Hal Leonard is the "Real Little Ultimate Fake Book," with over 1200 songs -- and every single one of them has the lyrics printed.