Reading Lyrics: More Than 1,000 of the Twentieth Century's Finest Song Lyrics

A comprehensive anthology bringing together more than one thousand of the best American and English song lyrics of the twentieth century; an extraordinary celebration of a unique art form and an indispensable reference work and history that celebrates one of the twentieth century€s most enduring and cherished legacies.
 
Reading Lyrics begins with the first masters of the colloquial phrase, including George M. Cohan (€œGive My Regards to Broadway€), P. G. Wodehouse (€œTill the Clouds Roll By€), and Irving Berlin, whose versatility and career span the period from €œAlexander€s Ragtime Band€ to €œAnnie Get Your Gun€ and beyond. The Broadway musical emerges as a distinct dramatic form in the 1920s and 1930s, its evolution propelled by a trio of lyricists€"Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, and Lorenz Hart€"whose explorations of the psychological and emotional nuances of falling in and out of love have lost none of their wit and sophistication. Their songs, including €œNight and Day,€ €œThe Man I Love,€ and €œBewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,€ have become standards performed and recorded by generation after generation of singers. The lure of Broadway and Hollywood and the performing genius of such artists as Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, Ethel Waters, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Ethel Merman inspired a remarkable array of talented writers, including Dorothy Fields (€œA Fine Romance,€ €œI Can€t Give You Anything but Love€), Frank Loesser (€œGuys and Dolls€), Oscar Hammerstein II (from the groundbreaking €œShow Boat€ of 1927 through his extraordinary collaboration with Richard Rodgers), Johnny Mercer, Yip Harburg, Andy Razaf, No«l Coward, and Stephen Sondheim.
 
Reading Lyrics also celebrates the work of dozens of superb craftsmen whose songs remain known, but who today are themselves less known€"writers like Haven Gillespie (whose €œSanta Claus Is Coming to Town€ may be the most widely recorded song of its era); Herman Hupfeld (not only the composer/lyricist of €œAs Time Goes By€ but also of €œAre You Makin€ Any Money?€ and €œWhen Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba€); the great light versifier Ogden Nash (€œSpeak Low,€ €œI€m a Stranger Here Myself,€ and, yes, €œThe Sea-Gull and the Ea-Gull€); Don Raye (€œBoogie Woogie Bugle Boy,€ €œMister Five by Five,€ and, of course, €œMilkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet€); Bobby Troup (€œRoute 66€); Billy Strayhorn (not only for the omnipresent €œLush Life€ but for €œSomething to Live For€ and €œA Lonely Coed€); Peggy Lee (not only a superb singer but also an original and appealing lyricist); and the unique Dave Frishberg (€œI€m Hip,€ €œPeel Me a Grape,€ €œVan Lingo Mungo€).
 
The lyricists are presented chronologically, each introduced by a succinct biography and the incisive commentary of Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball.