I’ve written how Frank Sinatra’s music has been, and is still, such a big part of the typical Italian-American dining ambience; steakhouse ambience, too. A large portion of the usual Sinatra playlist, and certainly some of his best work, is that which can be considered part of the Great American Songbook: “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Just One of Those Things,” “I’ve Got the World on a String,” and “They Can't Take That Away from Me,” are just a few that you might recognize.
The Great American Songbook is the canon of the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards, most written from the 1930s to 1950s by composers like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Duke Ellington and Johnny Mercer. These songwriters, at their best, employed “witty, urbane lyrics with teasingly unexpected rhymes,” to borrow from the Wikipedia site. It is music for adults, and many of the songs have remained musical touchstones for decades.
In addition to Sinatra, performers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin provided indelible renditions. You are certainly familiar with these songs, if you don’t know the name of the tunes. These have also become classic, instrumental jazz recordings that also add to that oft-found musical backdrop at dining or imbibing establishments.
Over the years, I’ve joked – accurately, I believe – to family that the Great American Songbook is comprised of the songs largely composed by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe or their sons and been sung and recorded the best by male Italian-American and female African-American singers. It’s truly American music.
The Great American Songbook is the canon of the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards, most written from the 1930s to 1950s by composers like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Duke Ellington and Johnny Mercer. These songwriters, at their best, employed “witty, urbane lyrics with teasingly unexpected rhymes,” to borrow from the Wikipedia site. It is music for adults, and many of the songs have remained musical touchstones for decades.
In addition to Sinatra, performers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin provided indelible renditions. You are certainly familiar with these songs, if you don’t know the name of the tunes. These have also become classic, instrumental jazz recordings that also add to that oft-found musical backdrop at dining or imbibing establishments.
Over the years, I’ve joked – accurately, I believe – to family that the Great American Songbook is comprised of the songs largely composed by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe or their sons and been sung and recorded the best by male Italian-American and female African-American singers. It’s truly American music.
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