Great American Songbook
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The Great American Songbook is an informal term referring to a period of American popular music songwriting that took place between the 1930s and 1950s. It is considered by many to be the peak of the popular songwriting craft.
Songwriters considered part of this group include:
- Harold Arlen ("Somewhere Over the Rainbow", "Stormy Weather")
- Irving Berlin ("White Christmas", "Unforgettable", "Blue Skies")
- Hoagy Carmichael ("Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness Of You")
- Duke Ellington ("In A Sentimental Mood", "It Don’t Mean A Thing", "Satin Doll", "Mood Indigo")
- George and Ira Gershwin ("Someone to Watch Over Me", "S’Wonderful", "Summertime")
- Jerome Kern ("Ol' Man River", "The Way You Look Tonight", "All The Things You Are", "The Song is You", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes")
- Henry Mancini ("Moon River", "Days Of Wine And Roses")
- Johnny Mandel ("The Shadow of Your Smile")
- Johnny Mercer ("One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)")
- Cole Porter ("Night and Day", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "It's De-Lovely")
- Rodgers and Hammerstein ("Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'", "Shall We Dance?", "The Sound of Music")
- Rodgers and Hart ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "My Romance", "Have You Met Miss Jones", "My Funny Valentine")
Many of these songs were specifically written for Broadway or motion picture musicals, and the lyrics of the songs often refer explicitly to the internal plots of these works.
Since the 1930's, many singers and musicians have explicitly recorded or performed large parts of the Great American Songbook, to the extent interpreting material from the Songbook forms a large part of jazz music today.
Ella Fitzgerald's popular and influential Sings the ... Songbook series on Verve in the 1950s and 60's collated 252 songs from the Songbook, and amongst jazz singers influential interpreters of the Great American Songbook have included Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Billie Holiday, and Mel Torme.
In more recent years there has been a revival of the Songbook with Linda Ronstadt, Michael Buble, Michael Feinstein, Queen Latifah, Joni Mitchell, John Pizzarelli, Boz Scaggs, Carly Simon, John Stevens (singer Idol contestant). Barbra Streisand has also chosen a huge part of her repertoire from the Songbook, and lately Bette Midler and Rod Stewart.
See also
External links
{| align="center" cellspacing="0" class="toccolours" width="70%" style="clear:both;text-align:center" |- style="background:#ccf;" | width="25" | | width="25" | | width="25" | ! style="font-size: 120%;" | The Great American Songbook | width="25" | | width="25" | | width="25" | |- | colspan="7" | Songwriters: Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Cy Coleman, Jimmy McHugh, Johnny MandelSingers: Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire, Tony Bennett, Michael Buble, Betty Carter, Blossom Dearie, Billy Eckstine, Michael Feinstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Shirley Horn, Lena Horne, Diana Krall, Carmen McRae, Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Mel Torme, Dinah Washington, Robbie Williams, Fanny Brice, Sarah Vaughan, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand
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