Customer Reviews

Reading Lyrics: More Than 1,000 of the Century's Finest Lyrics--a Celebration of Our Greatest Songwriters, a Rediscovery of Forgotten Masters, and an Appreciation of an

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Finally! A book that not only places song lyrics within the realm of literature, but also contains those lyrics in their entirety, This is the most complete book of English and American lyrics around: It contains all the lyrics (other than a song sheet, where will you find refrain 4 of "The Lady is a Tramp?") to more than 1,000 songs from the late 19th century to 1975, including the prototypical works of Gershwin, Porter, Hart, Mercer, Comden and Green, Berlin, Fields, Cahn, and Strayhorn. Dozens of relatively less prodigious and famous lyricists are included as well.

The book is a dream for jazz lovers. With the complete lyric and verse of "Body and Soul" (for example), one can appreciate Billy Holiday's vocals or Coleman Hawkins' definitive sax, or--warn your housemates--sing along! From "Sweet Georgia Brown" (1925) to "All of Me" (1931) to "Peel Me a Grape" (1962), this is a rich compendium of the English language songbook.

The organization is somewhat confusing: Lyricists are ordered by date of birth. True, one glimpses the evolution of the form, but with little context or theory this presentation is often more confusing than illuminating. (Fortunately, there are capsule biographies as well as a brief but informative introduction.) Other tips to navigating the book: The Index of Songs contains all songs in alphabetical order, the year they were written, the source, if not a recording (e.g., show, nightclub act, film) and the singer most associated with the song. Unfortunately, there is no index of lyricists, so one must search the lengthy Table of Contents, or work backwards and find the lyricist through the Song Index.

Small matter. As far as I know, this is the only book of its kind. A wonderful reference, "Reading Lyrics" makes a wonderful gift for the shower singer, the jazz buff, or the poetry lover. Very highly recommended!

This book pulls together something more than 1,000 sets of lyrics of the best known American popular songs from 1900 to 1975. It is a wide and well chosen selection that gives lots of coverage to well-known lyricists like Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart,Oscar Hammerstein, and Stephen Sondheim. It also provides lyrics for a lot of other well-known songs by less well-known lyricists. If you like American popular music, you will probably finding yourself lost in this book, looking and finding your particular favorite songs and going off to listening to some great recordings of the songs from which the lyrics are taken. The book is laid our well with clear print and with a good index.

I've conquered music reviews & the occasional movie one, but I had yet to try my hand at a book review. However, with this book, I just had to write about it & alert people to this great collection of some of the greatest words ever put to music in history. Some may wonder why certain songs from a certain lyricist are the only ones represented, but I imagine the lyrics that have best stood the test of time or are truly representative of the greatest of the person's repertoire are what's included. For a complete collection of lyrics, most likely a composer will have something of the sort published somewhere, but READING LYRICS is an excellent taster for those wanting to dive in.

Most music lovers of my generation like to listen to music where lyrics take second place to rhythm or melody, with the volume of both enough to render such good words useless. READING LYRICS looks at the first 3 quarters of the last century, perhaps the stretch of time when you could still hear what was being sung & eventually get the lyrics etched into your brain enough to repeat them at will. Naturally, those songs from the annals of musical theatre take up a fair share of the book, but that after all was its golden age until maybe the second half of the 1900s, when popular music truly became "popular" & theatre became more of a higher art. Both genres are represented on READING LYRICS (although this review is far from comprehensive what with the hundreds of lyricists discussed in here).

Even the most famous & worthy of household name status of songwriters get an inventory in READING LYRICS. True superstars of songwriting like Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin & Cole Porter are represented in READING LYRICS, although I imagine finding which songs to use was quite the struggle with all of their extensive outputs. However, all three helped expand the vocabulary of popular songwriting away from simple rhymes like "moon" with "June".

Gershwin couldn't be accused of following such methods, for time-honored classics like "But Not For Me", "Embraceable You", "Love Is Here To Stay" & "Someone To Watch Over Me" managed to be intelligent yet accessible at the same time. And that's just Ira's work with his brother George! Even after George's death, Ira kept on working with other collaborators, creating classics like "The Saga Of Jenny" (with Kurt Weill) & "I Can't Get Started" (with Vernon Duke).

Berlin was certainly more of a "people's songwriter" with lyrics that were easy to sing & remember, but by no means simplistic. Out of the thousands of songs he penned (both music & lyrics), "Supper Time" is perhaps the one to truly call Berlin's best, with its heartwrenching tale of prejudice against African-Americans written at a time when such racism was still a fact of life. In fact, Ethel Waters, who popularized the song, claimed it represented the Black experience better than any other song she sang. He may have also wrote the patriotic "God Bless America" (quite the statement from a Russian-born immigrant), but I think he never played into the hands of any specific politics & for that Berlin should be commended.

However, maybe THE classiest lyricist of all was (a Hoosier no less) Cole Porter, who, like Berlin, wrote both music & lyrics, which was no easy feat in that time. Of course, Porter was known for his extensive mastery of the English language in his music, with more internal rhymes than you can shake a stick at, thus making his songs both a challenge to sing & still contemporary even today. A great deal of Porter's songs rode on acerbic wit (like Stephen Sondheim's music of today), with a few notable examples like "It's De-Lovely" (to sing all of it, verses & refrains, would take all day), "Let's Do It" (which had "Let's Fall In Love" added to it so radio could play it), "Miss Otis Regrets" & "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" (its masochistic lyric is still a scorcher even now). But at the same time, Porter could be heartfelt when he wanted to, as proven by "True Love", "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To", "Just One Of Those Things" & even "Love For Sale" (its bouts with censorship are legendary). Cole Porter's run-ins with the censors would fill a book in itself, but let's just say that in this day & age of outright profanities being used, Porter's way with words still retains its power to shock & amuse.

That's not even the half of what READING LYRICS does to recount the greatest of American popular songwriting. But because of space restrictions, I just thought I'd point out some of my personal favorites. Nevertheless, READING LYRICS still contains a wide range of lyricists, from the absolutely famous (Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Sondheim & Noel Coward) to the semi-famous waiting to be rediscovered (Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer & Hoagy Carmichael) to ones whose songs may be more famous than their authors (too many to mention).

Each chapter in READING LYRICS features a short blurb on the songwriter's life & times, and their life's work with the occasional fun fact. For example, Jack Yellen's song "Happy Days Are Here Again" was adopted as FDR's campaign theme despite Yellen himself being a Republican. Maybe he was still grateful for the attention & the fact that the song became one of the most popular of the Depression era. But considering Yellen's politics, who knows if songs about wild women like "Hard-Hearted Hannah" & "Louisiana Lou [The Vampin' Lady]" really were what he thought about women & are all that popular with feminists today?

Anyhow, READING LYRICS is a good refresher course for anyone wanting to learn about popular music's golden age or, even better, for someone wanting to explore songwriting themselves. If a second volume is in the works, I'll be sure to put in my order for it soon enough!

i defy you to go thru this volume and not shake your head in disbelief. while anyone reading this page will be familiar with the likes of berlin or mercer or porter or the like, you will be astounded by the number of great songs, both familiar and new, that were writen by names youve never known. jack yellen? haven gillespie? irving kahal? who the blazes were they? well, yellen gave us "aint she sweet?" and "happy days are here again"; gillespie "you go to my head" and "santa claus is coming to town"; kahal "i'll be seeing you" and "when i take my sugar to tea". oh yes, btw, they all had more standards to their credit. as other reviewers have said, this is a book you dont ust read, you SING! messrs. kimball & gottlieb are to be commended -- and id bet a volume 2 would be just as filled with gems.

Some months ago I skimmed through this book before giving it to someone who appreciates song lyrics more than melody. I've been coveting it since, and I've decided I've gotta have one. For me lyrics were secondary to the music. Reading them in this book without any musical distraction, I recognized the impressive sophistication of thought and feeling and cleverness of wordplay displayed therein. This book generates multiple pleasures--sweet nostalgia for the poignant yearnings of youth; appreciation for the literary value (yes!) of many of these lyrics; delight in finding added enjoyment in the songs I love; and happiness over being able to sing the lyrics of more than the first two lines of my many favorites. After you look through this book, you'll surely admit they don't write lyrics like they used to.

You don't merely READ this wonderful collection. If you love standards, you'll SING it! The concept of READING LYRICS is so appealing, one wonders why it took so long to find its way into print. You don't need to be a senior citizen to recognize that these songs document an era when love was a respectable commodity. It also proves, elegaically, that they really DON'T write 'em the way they used to. An encyclopedia and indispensable collection you'll return to again and again.

I admit it... I'm a sucker for a good lyric. And this book is a treasure trove. If you don't like songs and their lyrics, this book is not for you. But if you DO - WOW! - this book is heavenly. You know that old saw about... if you could only take a couple of books to own and read for the rest of your life, etc. Well, without a doubt, THIS book would be one of my choices. It will make you laugh and cry and remember falling in love. What more can you ask of ANYTHING?

I got my copy from a used supplier as a remainder at a fine price. It is an essential compilation of great lyrics. Quite simply, if you like great music and the lyricists of the last century, how can you not seek this one out before it becomes hard to find.

This book was recommended by my sister. Anyone who loves singing along whilst listening to music will love this book - I certainly do. I ordered a copy for a friend who is now enjoying it and have recommended it to a number of people. I particularly like the fact that verses as well as the refrain are included although I am afraid I don't always know the tune. It is also a book which will appeal to people who like poetry as some of the lyrics are absolutely beautiful in their own right. Add the music and you have a concert right there in your head.

The one issue I have with this otherwise wonderful book is the way the editor writes about popular hits in each author's intro but then doesn't always include the lyrics to those songs! The hell is up with that?? If you're going to mention a song that everyone knows but then skip the lyrics of that song, it makes for a very frustrating time. Is there a vol 2 on the way?