This is a terrific show-biz bio that focuses on Berlin's career and tells enough about his personal life to satisfy those of us who remember how complex he was. There are many details of his projects on Broadway and in Hollywood, his publishing company, his early career as a singing waiter, and his tormented retirement. Anyone who likes the kind of anecdotes Moss Hart recounts in "Act One," anyone who is interested in the process of putting on shows and developing movies, will be fascinated by this. The book overflows with the larger-than-life personalities you expect from show business, and there are choice revelations (to me, at least), like his first encounter with George Gershwin, who as a very young man wanted to be Berlin's musical secretary but was rejected for being too talented (i.e., threatening).

The psychology (or psychosis?) of Berlin's genius is presented in a straightforward, non-babbling way. His complexity comes through in his ambivalence towards colleagues, with examples of generosity (an anecdote about the young Burton Lane), avuncularity (Harold Arlen), and rivalry (Richard Rodgers), all contrasted with the almost comical hostility he showed towards some "civilians," especially the scholarly types ("f***ing longhairs") who wanted to dissect him late in his career. His most famous paradox -- the fact that without being able to read music or play an instrument well or even sing decently, he was able to create works of matchless intricacy and depth -- is discussed thoroughly, although it will forever remain mysterious.

There are two dimensions I would like to have seen more fully explored. First, his relations with his original family are almost non-existent after his childhood. While this must be a reflection of reality, I was left curious about what went on between him and his sisters, nephews, and nieces. It's obvious that a major part of his assimilation was to reject all vestiges of his childhood, but it would have been nice to have more detail about encounters with those inconvenient relations. One of the few stories Bergreen includes -- about a sister dying of cancer -- is so painful that maybe he couldn't bring himself to pile on more.

Another aspect that could have been more developed was Berlin's technique. Although no one will ever be able to explain exactly why he's the greatest American songwriter, I would have liked more analysis about how he was able to achieve his unique combination of simplicity and sophistication. There is a total absence of musical examples, which might have two reasons: that publishers of musical bios tell their authors to leave notation out the same way authors of popular science books are prohibited from using equations, or that Berlin's estate forbids the quoting of even the smallest snippets of his songs. Or maybe the author isn't as much of a "longhair" as he seems to be from the precision and insight of his observations.

But even though I would have enjoyed reading more of the above, the book is totally splendid as is. The best compliment I can think of is that it does justice to one of the great artists of the 20th century.

LAURENCE BERGREEN has done a terrific job in all departments. When you finish the book, you have a good idea of who IRVING BERLIN was, and what a life he had from singing waiter to AMERICAN's first great composer with JEROME KERN. Anyone interested in the story of AMERICAN music should read that book.

I enjoyed Bergreen's book about Irving Berlin as I did his book on Al Capone. To think that all these great songs came from one man simply boggles the mind.

The greatest thing to come out since the Musical itself, Wonderful, educational, fantastic reproductions of the 19th century musicals!

Richard Fawkes' The History Of The Musical is a flawlessly recorded, 4 cassette, unabridged audiobook showcasing the development of the musical, from its origins in European light opera and operetta to its it's golden age in the American theater. The great song composers and lyricists are presented including Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Lloyd Webber, and Sondheim. The wonderfully narrated text by the award-winning Broadway singer Kim Criswell is enhanced with almost one hundred famous musical extracts. The History Of The Musical is a "must" for personal, academic, and community library music history and audiobook collections.

Surely there must be a medal somewhere out there for Naxos records and for author Richard Fawkes. After two superb sets of tapes and CDs titled "The History of Classical Music" and "The History of Opera," there is now available Mr. Fawkes' "The History of the Musical" (NA422712). Here we have singer/actress Kim Criswell narrating on 4 CDs or tapes just under 320 minutes of exactly what the title promises.

Starting with "The Beggar's Opera" of 1728, the history of the genre is traced up to the time of writing, meaning "Les Miserables." Along the way, we consider operetta, the English Music Hall, American vaudeville, the review, the book show, the familiar, the off-beat, the dead ends, the highly influential. And the London stage gets a good deal of attention also, thereby introducing a lot of material not very well known to those better versed in the American musical.

As with any good effort of this sort, a strong connection is drawn between the changing times and the changing concepts of what a musical should be. The importance of "Show Boat" is not glossed over, for example, nor is the other shock caused by "Pal Joey." The reliance of Lloyd Webber on staging is mentioned but not his lack of more than one fairly memorable melody per show. In general, the tone is upbeat and positive.

But this is a recording. While it could never include all the information found in a book, its dozens of recorded examples are what makes this set priceless. Where possible, the oldest "original cast" recordings are used. On the other hand, there are some strange exceptions such as "Hey there" from "Pajama Game" being sung not by John Raitt but by Ron Raines on the Jay recording. I suspect this is because Criswell is in the cast of that set.

Again, this set is in tape and CD formats. For educational purposes, the CDs offer direct access to any show under discussion--and the CDs are very generously divided into nearly 200 tracks! Very considerate of the producers. The booklet offers a nice little personal essay by Criswell. So if I have any complaint about this set, it is that I wish it were twice as long.

An excellent short bio of the wondrously talented songwriter who had little musical education yet produced hundreds of great popular songs between 1908 and the end of the century (He died at 101.) As a non-musician, I didn't always understand the author's explanations of why a particular standard broke new lyrical or musical ground, but I found the information riveting anyway. Berlin, the immigrant, became a symbol of the American Dream and deservedly so. Anyone who cherishes American music should read this.

While this book doen't cover as much of Berlin's personal life as does Laurence Bergreen's biography entitled As Thousands Cheer, Furia's biography does cover in great detail the background involved in a number of Berlin's songs. "What'll I Do" was written just after the loss of his mother. However, Berlin said people read too much personal stuff whenever he writes a ballad. I like the fact that the author includes the lyrics of a number of Berlin's songs. Despite being a prolific song writer, Berlin often felt insecure about his ability to continue to write songs. Following his first big hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" he always felt he had to continue to follow up with another big hit. He was able to continue to adjust to the music tastes of the country until rock and roll came in the mid-fifties. He became a very private man in his later years and felt people no longer cared about his music. Despite these thoughts, his contributions to American music remain timeless and will remain with us long after the latest fad of music passes by. To think that so many great songs came from this one man simply boggles the mind.

The creativity of Irving Berlin was amazing. This is a story of an interesting life, but also points out that, eventually, time erases foundations just like eroding soil or dripping water. Now, I would like to find a source to hear all of his songs as his number one concern was always quality. At times he would create a song in minutes, but it could also take years. As with most artists, he was continually looking for verification that his output was good. The appendix lists ALL of his tunes as well as other interesting data. A fine read.

I bought this book after seeing the show, and decided to use some songs in auditions. This book is very good because they give you most of the songs from the musical. Most of the songs are in there but not all of the reprises are there. The confusing part of the book is the fact that they don't give the names of the characters singing the songs. Clear and easy to read music adds to the benefits of this book! Great for those just learning to read music. Would be challenging for a beginning pianist.

All the great songs needed to audition for the show!

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.

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.

Author Edward Jablonski has written a very thorough book covering the life of Irving Berlin. This is the third biography I have read on Irving Berlin and in many ways it is much the same as the other two. One thing I did notice in this book is the detailed plot explanations of Berlin's plays that he wrote over the years. I did not necessarily care for all this detail, but it does provide the reader with information he may or may not care about. As an introductory book on Irving Berlin I would recommend "Irving Berlin--A Life in Song" by Philip Furia. Author Jablonski's book "American Troubadour" or Laurence Bergreen's book entitled "As Thousands Cheer" would be best read for someone who already has some introductory knowledge of Irving Berlin.

There are too many wonderful songs, each a treasure, to mention them all. It is enough to say that the best from Berlin's movie musicals are included here. Among the many are "Sisters" and the title song from White Christmas, "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails," "Cheek to Cheek," and "Steppin'Out." My friends and I have enjoyed this book so much I am ordering others in the Berlin series. A great collection of songs by one of America's greatest composers.

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 is a wonderful picture book. I am using it for second language learners during summer school. This also appeals to the musician in me. I plan to play the CD of God Bless America while showing the book to the students.

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 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.

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.

Has many favorite Berlin songs arranged for guitar; but a disappointment for piano players: only has melody line, not arranged in four part harmonies.

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.

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.