Irving Berlin, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany

Alec Wilder, perhaps the premier critic of American popular song of the period of The Songbook, concludes his chapter on Irving Berlin thus:

Let it be said that he is the best all-around, over-all songwriter America has ever had. In this area or that, I will say, and have said, that I believe so-and-so to be the master. But I can speak of only one composer as the master of the entire range of popular song -- Irving Berlin (p. 120, hardcover Ed.) .

Many have noted that Irving Berlin songs have become anthems for some of the most treasured American institutions: Christmas ("White Christmas"); Easter ("Easter Parade"); show busines ("There's No Business Like Show Business") and America itself ("God Bless America").

No doubt these songs played a role in causing Jerome Kern to answer, in the way he famously did, the question, "What is Irving Berlin's place in American music?" Kern replied, "There is no place for Irving Berlin in American music -- Irving Berlin is American music."

In his interview with Irving Berlin, Max Wilk relates that the name of an important songwriter came up, and Wilk told Berlin that this here unnamed figure told him that when he writes, "the song must please him first -- and then if his own taste is lucky enough to coincide with the public's, he has a popular song."

According to Wilk, that upon hearing the above, "Berlin burst into laughter. 'He told you that, did he?' [Berlin] chortled. 'All right, I'll tell you what I think about that. I write a song to please the public -- and if the public doesn't like it in New Haven [where Broadway shows typically held their previews], I change it!'" (Wilk, p. 340, hardcover Ed.).

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: Irving Berlin

1982 Academy Awards salute to Irving Berlin
with Bernadette Peters and Peter Allen performing "What'll I Do?" "Easter Parade," "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody," and "There's No Business Like Show Business."

• Alexander’s Ragtime Band
  
• All Alone
  
• All by Myself
  
• Always
  
• Anything You Can Do
  
• Be Careful, It's My Heart
  
• The Best Thing for You (would be me)
  
• Blue Skies
  
• Change Partners
  
• Cheek to Cheek
  
• Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep
  
• A Couple of Swells
  
• Doin' What Comes Natur'lly
  
• Easter Parade
  
• Fools Fall in Love
  
• Girl That I Marry (The)
  
• Heat Wave
  
• How Deep Is the Ocean (How High Is the Sky)
  
• How Many Times?
  
• I Got Lost in His Arms
  
• I Got the Sun in the Morning
  
• I Love a Piano
  
• I Used To Be Color Blind
  
• I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket
  
• Isn't This a Lovely Day (to be caught in the rain)?
  
• It Only Happens When I Dance with You
  
• It's a Lovely Day Today
  
• I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
  
• Lazy
  
• Let Yourself Go
• Let's Face The Music And Dance
• Let's Take an Old-Fashioned Walk
• Marie (the dawn is breaking)
• No Strings (I'm fancy free)
• Oh, How I Hate To Get Up in the Morning
• Play a Simple Melody
• A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody
• Puttin' On The Ritz
• Remember
• Russian Lullaby
• Say It Isn't So
• Soft Lights and Sweet Musi
• Some Sunny Day
• The Song Is Ended (but the melody lingers on)
• Steppin' Out with My Baby
• Supper Time
• There's No Business like Show Business
• They Say It's Wonderful
• Top Hat, White Tie And Tail
• What'll I Do?
• When I Lost You
• White Christmas
• You Keep Coming Back like a Song
• You're Just in Love

Research Resources: Irving Berlin

• Amazon (recordings, books, sheet music, etc.)
• Irving Berlin Music Co. website.
• DBOPM (Database Of Popular Music: song list; awards; hit songs; co-writers)
• Discogs.com (songwriting and arranging credits)
• Internet Broadway Database (Broadway productions and song credits)
• Internet Movie Database (brief biography, filmography, movie song credits)
• New York Public Library (includes citations for books, recordings, sheet music, etc.)
• The New York Times (includes bibliography of articles)
• NPR Music (A listing of NPR Music programs on Berlin--audio available on some);
• ParlorSongs.com "Irving Berlin, The Dean of American Songwriters" .
• Songwriters Hall of Fame (Berlin biography and song list)
• Wikipedia (Berlin article)
• Alexander Woolcott. The Story of Irving Berlin. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1925.
• "Music: Quarter Century." Time. May 28, 1934 (Time's salute to Berlin on 25 years of songwriting).
• Alec Wilder, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, New York: Oxford University Press, 1972 (chapter on Berlin, pp.91-120, hardcover Ed. plus other references).
• Max Wilk. They're Playing Our Song: Conversations with America's Classic Songwriters. New York and Stratford, CT: Easton Studio Press, 2008. (originally published 1973 as They're Playing Our Song: From Jerome Kern to Stephen Sondheim—The Stories behind the Words and Music of Two Generations) -- chapter on Berlin, pp. 337-333
• Michael, Freedland. Irving Berlin, New York: Stein and Day, 1974.
• Roy Hemming, The Melody Lingers On: The Great Songwriters and Their Movie
  Musicals, New York: Newmarket Press, 1986 (chapter on Berlin)
• Laurence Bergreen. As Thousands Cheer The Life of Irving Berlin. New York: Viking, 1990.
• Mary Ellin Barrett. Irving Berlin A Daughter's Memoir, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.
• Charles Hamm, Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot: The Formative Years, 1907-1914, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997.
• Philip Furia. Irving Berlin: A Life in Song. New York: Schirmer, 1998.
• Edward Jablonski. Irving Berlin: American Troubadour. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
• William Zinsser. Easy to Remember The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs. Jaffrey, New Hampshire: David R. Godine, 2000 (includes a chapter on Berlin--overall the best introduction to The Great American Songbook).
• Richard Corliss. "That Old Feeling: An Irving Berlin Biopic." Time. Dec. 30, 2001 (Corliss' argument for why Berlin was the Stephen Foster of his time and is of our time as well).
• Jody Rosen. White Christmas: The Story of an American Song. New York: Scribner, 2002.
• Robert Kimball and Linda Emmet (Eds.). The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 2001/Applause Theater and Cinema Books, 2005, paperback edition.
• Glenn Collins. "Dreaming of Irving Berlin in the Season That
  He Owned." The New York Times, Dec. 23, 2005.
• Wilfred Sheed. The House That George Built: with a Little Help from Irving, Cole and a Crew of about Fifty. New York: Random House, 2007 (includes chapter on Berlin).
• Ben Sears and Brad Conner, "'Alexander's Ragtime Band' at (Nearly) One Hundred." The Ben Sears & Brad Conner Website, 2010 (A fully developed, documented history of the song).
• A Look into the Life of Irving Berlin: St. Paul Star
• 1982 Academy Awards salute to Irving Berlin : kjanson

• Wikipedia Commons/Public Domain

Notes

• Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook (1958)
• Irving Sings Berlin (Irving Berlin sings his own songs--a rare CD)
• Irving Berlin in Hollywood (25 original movie soundtrack Berlin songs)
• Irving Berlin Always sixteen tracks by Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Fred Astaire, Billy Ekstine and Billie Holiday
• Irving Berlin Songs currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook

Cite this page: Irving Berlin, songwriter: reference sources (web and print); selected songs; recordings, videos; miscellany, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/b_sws/berlin_irving.html