America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and the Tin Pan Alley.

* America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and the Tin Pan Alley, by Philip Furia and Michael Lasser. Routledge (270 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2006. 336pp. $29.95.

America's Songs is a storybook, a collection of vignettes that covers almost seven decades of our country's musical history. It is a look inside the circumstances that saw the creation of hits like "Fascinating Rhythm," "My Favorite Things" and "Over the Rainbow." It places these songs and their creators in historical and social perspective, and without quite a few surprises. I don't want to spoil anything here, but you'll discover which song almost didn't make it into The Wizard of Oz and how a tune conceived on a hot day in July overcame all odds to become Nat King Cole's biggest-selling recording (hint: there's nothing hot about the song.)

More than anything, this book is fun to read. Those who have grown up with these songs will find themselves on a wonderful trip down memory lane, and those who may never have heard the names Jimmy Van Heusen or Vernon Duke will quickly recognize the tunes and the influences these lyricists and composers have had on later generations. The book is carefully indexed by song and show, and can be read as a reference or as a cover to cover chronicle of the Great American Songbook. The material is presented in raw form; in many cases the words are straight from the composers' mouths, and even though some of the stories sound a bit too fantastic to be true, the authors are content to let the legends be. The book is very well-researched, and a complete bibliography is included for those who wish to delve further into history.

America's Songs is a welcome addition to any music lover's library, and it couldn't have come at a better time. In an age when Broadway and Hollywood seem always to be looking for the "next big thing," it's refreshing to be reminded of how we got here, and just how timeless, fresh and truly amazing the first few hundred "big things" are.--Reviewed by Jason Sifford, Lubbock, Texas

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