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 Tin Pan Alley Genre of U.S. popular music that arose in New York in the late 19th century. The name was coined by the songwriter Monroe Rosenfeld as the byname of the street on which the industry was based—28th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway in the early , by Philip Furia and Michael Lasser. Routledge (270 Madison Ave., New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , NY 10016), 2006. 336pp. $29.95. America's Songs is a storybook sto·ry·book n. A book containing a collection of stories, usually for children. adj. Occurring in or resembling the style or content of a storybook: storybook characters; a storybook romance. , 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 My Favorite is an independent synthpop band from Long Island, New York. They released two CDs: Love at Absolute Zero and Happiest Days of Our Lives. My Favorite broke up on September 14, 2005, when singer Andrea Vaughn left the band. 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 Wizard of Oz reaches and departs from Oz in circus balloon. [Children’s Lit.: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz] See : Ballooning Wizard of Oz false wizard takes up residence in Emerald City. [Am. Lit. 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 Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. 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 * The items marked with this symbol can be ordered via the MTNA MTNA Music Teachers National Association MTNA Middle Tennessee Nursery Association (McMinnville, Tennessee) website through our affiliation with Amazon.com. Go to www.mtna.org, click on "Resources and Services" and scroll down to the Amazon.com section. |
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