# Great American Songbook



## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

This is about pop standards before the arrival of rock'n'roll.

I don't know much of them and I don't know where to find. But I'm quite curious about this period in popular music and songs.

All I've managed to find were some huge lists of songs that don't really give you any direction for exploration.

I would like if someone more knowledgeable could share their favorites or give me some directions for exploration.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

not a songbook, but a sample of how music before rock'n'roll sounded like


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## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

not bad at all, entertaining music


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## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

What about Frank Sinatra and other similar artists? your opinion?


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

for some direction you should check out the book of Alec Wilder called "American popular song: the great innovators" which is, at least to my knowledge, the most important book written on the argument. It's dedicated mostly to the songs written in the first half of the century, with some later exceptions. Wilder himself was a fantastic and overlooked composer and songwriter, underappreciated for many reasons, one being that he decided to not include himself in the book. But his work (and not only his songs) is absolutely exquisite.

There's also a book called "Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century" which in the intention of the authors (David Jensen and Donald Velsey) tries to analyze the songs that could belong to that tradition of the second half of the century.

Then there's "Warren W. Vaché - the unsung songwriters", I have read only few extracts and seems very interesting.
Another one that I haven't read yet but I want is "William Zinsser - Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs"

And dedicated to jazz standards in general (that means including also pieces that aren't necessarily songs, but songs are there) there's Jazz standard from Ted Gioia.
On the same argument (songs but also instrumental tunes) on internet there's the site:http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions/


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## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

@norman bates... great suggestions... I first checked jazz standards... I'll check the rest too


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

some of my favorites, just to give you a small introduction:

Lucy Reed - Lazy afternoon (Jerome Moross)





Nat King Cole - Stardust (Hoagy Carmichael)





Hoagy Carmichael - Winter moon 





Carrie Smith - Ill Wind (Harold Arlen)





Beverly Kenney - The things we did last summer (Jule Styne)





Lee Wiley - Manhattan (Richard Rodgers)





Blossom Dearie - Someone to watch over me (George Gerswhin)





Lorez Alexandria - Baltimore Oriole (Hoagy Carmichael)





Anita O'Day - A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square (Manning Sherwin) one of a good amount of examples of songs considered part of the GAS not actually written by an american musician because written in that style





Carrie Smith - Willow weep for me (Ann Ronell) one of the few examples I can think of of a standard where's the music was written by a woman 





Ella Fitzgerald - Nature boy (Eden Ahbez)





Frank Sinatra - A long night (Alec Wilder)





Carmen McRae - Dear Ruby (Thelonious Monk) one of those songs that is much more known as a instrumental but works surprisingly well as a song too





Lucy Ann Polk - Chicken road (Joe Green) an interesting example of southern gothic lyrics applied to the GAS





Marta Roma - On the sunny side of the street (Jimmy McHugh)





Fats Waller - Ain't Misbehavin'





Fiona Apple - Why try to change me now (Cy Coleman)





Nancy Wilson - Never will I marry (Frank Loesser)





Claudine Longet - Sunrise sunset (Jerry Bock)





Queen Latifah - Lush life (Billy Strayhorn)





Barbara Lea - Born to the bayou (Willard Robison) Robison is another very underrated songwriter who deserves to be more well known 





Julie London - Cry me a river (Arthur Hamilton)




Linda Eder - Dream with me (Leonard Bernstein)





Burt Bacharach - Lisa





Willie Nelson - September song (Kurt Weill)





Billie Holiday - Detour ahead (Herb Hellins-Johnny Frigo-Lou Carter)





Katie Melua - Have yourself a merry little Christmas (Hugh Martin)





Ok, I suspect I've already put too much examples.
And I've not even mentioned anything written by some of the major songwriters like Berlin, Kern, Vernon Duke and others...


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I heartily second the suggestion of the *Alec Wilder* book - excellent source for the composers covering this material and period.

For recordings, you can hardly do better than the *Ella Fitzgerald* series of "songbooks" by the major composers of the Great American Songbook (available on streaming services). Although many singers have done similar recordings, *Sarah Vaughan*, *Michael Feinstein*, and others. There are also two *Smithsonian* boxes: a 5CD box, "American Popular Song" and the 4CD "American Musical Theater: Shows, Songs and Stars."


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

If you want to listen to the songs you can explore the Ella Fitzgerald series on Verve records which covers eight of these songwriters. And of course there are several others like Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, Jimmy Van Heusen, Matt Dennis, Ray Noble, and others. You may want to look up the author Will Friedwald who writes about this era of popular music. He's written several books. You can do a search on Tin Pan Alley and find a number of books.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

ZJovicic said:


> What about Frank Sinatra and other similar artists? your opinion?


The Capitol albums of the 1950s is the best place to start. Sinatra in his prime years singing great material.

Also the European Not Now label has produced inexpensive 3 disc sets of Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, and Blosson Dearie. 75 songs on each set.


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## Paul Roberts (Oct 10, 2020)

If you want to go back in time a bit you might be interested in checking out The Fireside Book Of Favorite American Songs.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

You can’t go wrong with the Ella Fitzgerald songbooks. Also the albums she made with Louis Armstrong. Second the Sinatra albums as well. As for the Alec Wilder book, it’s terrific, but I think it presumes a knowledge a knowledge of the songs. Also when I bought it, it was OOP except for Kindle - and the Kindle version is awful.

In addition to the other books mentioned, you might want to check out “Reading Lyrics,” which contains the lyrics to more than 1000 songs from that era. 

The composer William Bolcom and his wife, Joan Morris, treated these as art songs (more or less). I suspect a lot of their albums as OOP, but if you can find one you might enjoy it. And don’t forget original Broadway cast albums.


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