Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was an American composer A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media[clarification needed]. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright[specify] and the and lyricist A lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters A songwriter is an individual who writes either or both the lyrics or music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer. Although songwriters of the past commonly composed, arranged and played their own songs, more recently the pressure to produce popular hits has in history.
His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is the name of a song by Irving Berlin. It was his first major hit, in 1911. There is some evidence, although inconclusive, that Berlin borrowed the melody from a draft composition submitted by Scott Joplin that had been submitted to a publisher", became world famous. The song sparked an international dance craze in places as far away as Russia, which also "flung itself into the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on mania." Over the years he was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular: uncomplicated, simple and direct, with his aim being to "reach the heart of the average American" whom he saw as the "real soul of the country."
He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which made him "a legend" before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including "Easter Parade", "White Christmas "White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the best selling single of all time", "Happy Holiday", "This is the Army, Mr. Jones", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". His Broadway musical and 1942 film, This is the Army This Is the Army is a 1943 American motion picture produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, and directed by Michael Curtiz, and a wartime musical designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, directed by Sgt. Ezra Stone. The screenplay by Casey Robinson and Claude Binyon was based on the 1942 Broadway musical by Irving Berlin, who, with Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975), had Kate Smith Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith was an American singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, reaching its pinnacle in the 1940s singing Berlin's "God Bless America "God Bless America" is an American patriotic song originally written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938, as sung by Kate Smith" which was first performed in 1938. After the September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing in 2001, Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion CC, OQ (French pronunciation: [selin djɔ̃] ; born March 30, 1968) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur. Born to a large, impoverished family in Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to recorded it as a tribute, making it #1 on the charts.
Berlin's songs have reached the top of the charts 25 times and have been re-recorded countless times by singers including Ethel Merman Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", ", Frank Sinatra Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Ethel Waters, Judy Garland Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award, won a Golden Globe Award, received the Cecil B, Barbra Streisand Barbra Streisand is an American singer, actress, director and songwriter. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, and a Peabody Award, Linda Ronstadt Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music singer. Her many vocal styles and recordings in a variety of genres have resonated with the general public over the course of her four-decade career. As a result, she has earned multiple Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and, Rosemary Clooney Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" (a cover version of the Italian song Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina by Alberto Rabagliati), "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", Diana Ross Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer and actress. During the 1960s, she helped shape the Motown sound as lead singer of The Supremes, before leaving the group for a solo career on January 14, 1970. Since the beginning of her career with The Supremes and as a solo artist, Ross has sold more than 100 million records, Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. His career stretched more than half a century from 1926 until his death in 1977. Crosby's unique bass-baritone voice made him the best-selling recording artist until well into the rock era, with over half a billion records in circulation, Rita Reys, Frankie Laine Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as America's Number One Song Stylist, his other nicknames include Mr, Johnnie Ray John Alvin Ray was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage persona, Al Jolson Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian, and actor. He is considered the "first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America". His career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950, during which time he was commonly dubbed "the world's greatest entertainer”, Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles known professionally as Nat "King" Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black, Billie Holiday Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Above all, she was admired all over the world for, and Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (Db3 to Db6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her. Composer Douglas Moore sets Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters, and includes him instead with Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century. His songs — such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" ("Swanee River"), "Hard Times Come Again No More", "My Old Kentucky, Walt Whitman Walter Whitman was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly, and Carl Sandburg Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat.", as a "great American minstrel" – someone who has "caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think about, and what we believe."[1] Composer George Gershwin George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known called him "the greatest songwriter that has ever lived",[2]:117 and composer Jerome Kern Jerome Kern was an American composer of popular music. He wrote around 700 songs, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Long Ago (and Far Away)" concluded that "Irving Berlin has no place in American music - he is American music."[3]
Contents |
Early life
Russian immigrant
Life in Russia
Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline on May 11, 1888, one of eight children of Moses and Lena Lipkin Baline. His birthplace is Tyumen Tyumen (Russian: Тюме́нь ) is a city in Urals Federal District in Russia, located on the Tura River 2,144 kilometers (1,332 mi) east of Moscow. It is the administrative center and the largest city of Tyumen Oblast in the Urals Federal District. Population: 609,100 (2010 est.); 510,719 (2002 Census); 476,869 (1989 Census),[4] in Eastern Russia Russia (pronounced /ˈrʌʃə/ ; Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈraʦəjə] ( listen)), is a state in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic,. His father, a cantor A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer in a Jewish synagogue, uprooted the family to America, as did many other Jewish families in late 19th century. In 1893 they settled in New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over global commerce, finance, media, culture, art, fashion, research, education, and entertainment. As host of the. According to his biographer, Laurence Bergreen, as an adult Berlin admitted to no memories of his first five years in Russia except for one: "he was lying on a blanket by the side of a road, watching his house burn to the ground. By daylight the house was in ashes."[5]:10
Author and music historian Ian Whitcomb described Berlin's life in Russia:
Life might have seemed irksome to Israel Baline:God was watching you everywhere. From the dawn bath to the night straw cot, everything was of religious significance. God was in the food and in the clothing. When Moses caught Israel pulling on his little shoes in a manner proscribed by the Talmud The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history he beat him…
The floor of the Baline hut-home was of hard black dirt. Outside, the squiggly streets of Tyumen were either mud or dust according to the season. Lining the squiggles were horrid wooden huts. Sometimes wild pigs would rage into town and bite children to death…It was not a setting to sing about…Instead, cantor Moses took his children to the synagogue where, in soothing sing-song readings from the Talmud, the cares of the day were eased away. Life in Tyumen sounds pretty awful but, in later years, Irving Berlin said he was unaware of being raised in abject poverty. He knew no other life and there was always hot food on the table, even if it was God-riddled.[6]
Whitcomb also describes further the turning point in Berlin's early life:
But, suddenly one day, the Cossacks Cossacks are a group of predominately East Slavic martial people living in the southern steppe regions of Eastern Europe and Asian Russia, presently numbering up to 7 million people rampaged in on a pogrom... they simply burned it to the ground. Israel and his family watched from a distant road. Israel was wrapped in a warm feather quilt. Then they made a hasty exit. Knowing that they were breaking the law by leaving without a passport ( Russia at that time was the only country requiring passports), the Balines smuggled themselves creepingly from town to town, from satellite to satellite, from sea to shining sea, until finally they reached their star: the Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (originally called Liberty Enlightening the World ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman.[6]:19
The new Tsar of Russia Tsar is a title used to designate certain monarchs or supreme rulers. The first ruler to adopt the title tsar was Simeon I of Bulgaria. As a system of government, it is known as Tsarism, notes Whitcomb, had revived with utmost brutality the anti-Jewish pogroms, which created the spontaneous mass exodus to America. The pogroms A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack, either approved or condoned by government or military authorities, directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centres, property. The term was originally used to denote extensive were to continue until 1906, and thousands of other families besides the Balines would also escape, including those of George Gershwin George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known and Ira Gershwin, Al Jolson Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian, and actor. He is considered the "first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America". His career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950, during which time he was commonly dubbed "the world's greatest entertainer”, Sophie Tucker Sophie Tucker was a Russian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risque songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first two-thirds of the 20th century. She was widely known by the nickname "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas.", L. Wolfe Gilbert ("Waiting for the Robert E. Lee"), Jack Yellen ("Happy Days Are Here Again"), and Louis B. Mayer Louis Burt Mayer was a Russian-born American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in its golden years. Known always as Louis B. Mayer and often simply as "L.B.", he believed in wholesome entertainment and went to great lengths so that MGM had "more stars (MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., or MGM, is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures).[6]:14
Settling in New York City
They eventually settled on Cherry Street, a "cold-water basement flat with no windows,"[6] on the Lower East Side The Lower East Side is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street. It has traditionally been an immigrant, working class neighborhood, but has undergone rapid. His father, unable to find comparable work as a cantor in New York, took a job at a Kosher Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér (כָּשֵׁר), meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption by Jews according to traditional Jewish law). Food that is not in accordance with Jewish law is meat market and gave Hebrew lessons on the side, and struggled to support his family. He died a few years later when Irving was eight years old. With only two years of schooling, he found it necessary to take to the streets to help support his family.[1] He became a newspaper boy, hawking The Evening Journal. On his first day on the job, according to Berlin’s biographer and friend, Alexander Woollcott Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, and a member of the Algonquin Round Table, the boy “stopped to look at a ship about to put out for China. So entranced was he that he failed to notice a swinging crane, and he was knocked into the river. When he was fished out, after going down for the third time, he was still holding in his clenched fist the five pennies that constituted his first day's receipts, his contribution to the family budget.”[1][7] His mother took jobs as a midwife Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during their pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also care for the newborn through to six weeks of age, including assisting the mother with breastfeeding, and three of his sisters worked wrapping cigars, common for immigrant girls. His older brother worked in a sweatshop assembling shirts. Each evening, when the family came home from their day's work, Bergreen writes, "they would deposit the coins they had earned that day into Lena's outspread apron."[5] :11
Music historian Philip Furia writes that when eight-year-old "Izzy" quit school to sell newspapers in the Bowery, he no doubt would "hear the hits of the day drift through the doors of saloons and restaurants" that lined the streets of New York. He found that if he sang some of the songs while selling papers, people would toss him coins in appreciation, which gave him a vision of things to come. One night to his mother, he "confessed his life's ambition—to become a singing waiter in a saloon."[8]:48
Before turning fourteen, according to Woollcott, he began to realize that "he contributed less than the least of his sisters... and he was sick with a sense of his own worthlessness."[7] Bergreen writes that it was at this point that he left home to become a "foot soldier in the city's ragged army of immigrants." Berlin entered a lifestyle along the Bowery where an entire subindustry of lodging houses had sprung up to shelter the thousands of homeless boys choking the Lower East Side The Lower East Side is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street. It has traditionally been an immigrant, working class neighborhood, but has undergone rapid streets. "They were not settlement houses or charitable institutions; rather, they were Dickensian in their meanness, filth, and insensitivity to ordinary human beings."[5]:15
|
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:39:49 GMT+00:00
Syracuse New Times Several numbers are evocations/tributes to those who came before him, like How Much I Love You for Irving Berlin or West Wind for Richard Rodgers, ...
unknown
hu, 24 Sep 2009 15:13:53 GM
Here we sit with nothing but blue skies ahead. Kind of reminds me of the popular song of the same name (I enjoy the Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson versions of Blue Skies).
Q. I am particularly interested in female only versions of the song.
Asked by bearhawkboston - Sun Dec 23 23:33:28 2007 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. I've sung it! I don't know how else to answer that question tho...it was fun!
Answered by applespineapple7 - Mon Dec 24 01:08:52 2007
