Description
Book SynopsisCrosby, Holiday, Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Garland, and Streisand were the major interpreters of the American songbook, and this is the interlocking story of their lives and careers.
Here is the epic tale of how these artists dominated American popular music over a fifty-year period, colourfully described like a roller coaster ride that gains momentum through the 1930s and ’40s, reaches a crest of magical creativity in the 1950s and early 1960s, and then crashes down by the early 1970s, a half century when the great American songbook dominated the airwaves and the fight for racial equality came to the forefront.
Frank is still the king of the songbook, but Bing’s legacy is just as vital once you start listening to his unprecedented 1930s output. The legend of Billie grows by the year, and the basis of this should be appreciation and wonder for her own great artistry in the 1930s. Barbra is a living legend and still a commercial force to be reckoned with, the last exemplar of the songbook and its glories. All six of these singers reach out to us and show us new ways of expression and new ways to dream.
Their song is largely ended but the melody lingers on.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Democracy of American Music
Bing: Out of Nowhere
Bing: Just One More Chance
Billie’s Blues
Frank in Hoboken
Ella: You’re Going to Hear From Me
Baby Gumm
Diana’s Dream
Bing at the Top
Billie and Ella
The Hoboken Four
Judy Swings
Sweet Leilani and Mexicali Rose
Billie Swings Her Way and Ella Finds a Hit
Band Canary Frank
Judy and Mickey and the Rainbow
Bing: Minstrelsy and Father O’Malley
Billie and Ella Travel Light
Frank: The Voice
Judy: The Girl Next Door
Barbara and the Mirror
Bing: Homecoming and Feet of Clay
Billie: Lover Man
Ella Bebop
Judy and Frank at MGM
Bing and Dixie
Billie’s Clef Blues
Frank’s Fall and Rise
Judy on the Comeback Trail
Frank and Ella Make Album History
Lady in Satin and Billie at the Met
Judy and Barbra
Ella and Frank
Judy: After You’ve Gone
Barbra at the Top
Frank and Ella at the Crossroads
Bing in Winter
Movie Star Barbra and Frank and Ella on the Road
Coda: Barbra in the 21st Century
Index
