(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook). The All Music Guide states, "A distinctive, girlish voice, crisp, impeccable delivery, and an irrepressible sense of playful swing made Blossom Dearie one of the most enjoyable singers of the vocal era." This folio celebrates Blossom's career with arrangements of 15 of her most enduring favorites, including: Bye-Bye Country Boy * 'Deed I Do * I Won't Dance * It Might as Well Be Spring * Once upon a Summertime * Peel Me a Grape * and more. Includes an excellent bio!

(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Songbook). Crooners, wailers, shouters, balladeers some of our greatest pop vocalists have poured their hearts and souls into the musical gems of the Great American Songbook. They sang in nightclubs and concert halls, on television and in films, and left us a legacy of recordings still in play today. Their interpretations entertained us, moved us to tears, and wove lyrics and music into the fabric of our lives, making us see ourselves in these quintessentially American songs. This folio features 100 of these classics by Louis Armstrong (Hello Dolly * What a Wonderful World), Tony Bennett (I Left My Heart in San Francisco), Rosemary Clooney (Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep), Nat "King" Cole (Route 66), Bing Crosby (True Love), Doris Day (Bewitched), Ella Fitzgerald (How High the Moon), Judy Garland (Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody), Dean Martin (Everybody Loves Somebody), Frank Sinatra (Young at Heart), Barbra Streisand (People), Mel Torme (Heart and Soul), and many, many more.

(Vocal Piano). Arguably the best female jazz singer ever, no one could out-swing or out-scat "The First Lady of Song." This fine book features authentic transcriptions in the original keys of 25 Fitzgerald classics in voice with piano accompaniment format: A-tisket, A-tasket * But Not for Me * Easy to Love * Embraceable You * The Lady Is a Tramp * Misty * Oh, Lady Be Good! * Satin Doll * Stompin' at the Savoy * Take the "A" Train * and more. Includes a biography and discography. A must for every jazz singer's library!

(Ukulele). Over 50 folky favorites perfect for uke, including: All You Need Is Love * Bless the Beasts and Children * Blowin' in the Wind * Bridge over Troubled Water * Candle on the Water * Everything Is Beautiful * From a Distance * The Greatest Love of All * Heal the World * I'd like to Teach the World to Sing * Imagine * Lean on Me * Let It Be * Let There Be Peace on Earth * Love Can Build a Bridge * Over the Rainbow * Peace Train * The Rainbow Connection * The Rose * Seasons of Love * Sing * Somewhere Out There * Tears in Heaven * Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) * What a Wonderful World * What the World Needs Now Is Love * You Light up My Life * You Raise Me Up * and more.

An award-winning Black feminist music critic takes us on an epic journey through radical sound from Bessie Smith to Beyoncé. Daphne A. Brooks explores more than a century of music archives to examine the critics, collectors, and listeners who have determined perceptions of Black women on stage and in the recording studio. How is it possible, she asks, that iconic artists such as Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé exist simultaneously at the center and on the fringe of the culture industry? Liner Notes for the Revolution offers a startling new perspective on these acclaimed figures—a perspective informed by the overlooked contributions of other Black women concerned with the work of their musical peers. Zora Neale Hurston appears as a sound archivist and a performer, Lorraine Hansberry as a queer Black feminist critic of modern culture, and Pauline Hopkins as America’s first Black female cultural commentator. Brooks tackles the complicated racial politics of blues music recording, song collecting, and rock and roll criticism. She makes lyrical forays into the blues pioneers Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith, as well as fans who became critics, like the record-label entrepreneur and writer Rosetta Reitz. In the twenty-first century, pop superstar Janelle Monae’s liner notes are recognized for their innovations, while celebrated singers Cécile McLorin Salvant, Rhiannon Giddens, and Valerie June take their place as cultural historians. With an innovative perspective on the story of Black women in popular music—and who should rightly tell it—Liner Notes for the Revolution pioneers a long overdue recognition and celebration of Black women musicians as radical intellectuals.

Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950-2000 addresses the question: What happened to American popular song after 1950? There are numerous books available on the so-called Golden Age of popular song, but none that follow the development of popular song styles in the second half of the 20th century. While 1950 is seen as the end of an era, the tap of popular song creation hardly ran dry after that date. Many of the classic songwriters continued to work through the following decades: Porter was active until 1958; Rodgers until the later 1970s; Arlen until 1976. Some of the greatest lyricists of the classic era continued to do outstanding and successful work: Johnny Mercer and Dorothy Fields, for example, continued to produce lyrics through the early '70s. These works could be explained as simply the Golden Age's last stand, a refusal of major figures to give in to a new reality. But then, how can we explain the outstanding careers of Frank Loesser, Cy Coleman, Jerry Herman, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, Fred Kander and John Ebb, Jule Styne, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, and several other major figures? Where did Stephen Sondheim come from? For anyone interested in the development of American popular song -- and its survival -- this book will make fascinating reading.

The seventh volume in Knopf’s critically acclaimed Complete Lyrics series, published in Johnny Mercer’s centennial year, contains the texts to more than 1,200 of his lyrics, several hundred of them published here for the first time. Johnny Mercer’s early songs became staples of the big band era and were regularly featured in the musicals of early Hollywood. With his collaborators, who included Richard A. Whiting, Harry Warren, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen, he wrote the lyrics to some of the most famous standards, among them, “Too Marvelous for Words,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Skylark,” “I’m Old-Fashioned,” and “That Old Black Magic.” During a career of more than four decades, Mercer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song an astonishing eighteen times, and won four: for his lyrics to “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” (music by Warren), “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” (music by Carmichael), and “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses” (music for both by Henry Mancini). You’ve probably fallen in love with more than a few of Mercer’s songs–his words have never gone out of fashion–and with this superb collection, it’s easy to see that his lyrics elevated popular song into art.

An extensive biographical and critical survey of more than 300 jazz and popular singers is comprised of provocative, opinionated essays that incorporate the views of peers, fans and critics while assessing key movements and genres.

Jerome Kern (1885-1945) is considered one of the most versatile and influential of all American theatre and film composers. His pioneer work in developing a truly American musical sound inspired many of the great songwriters of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and his songs include dozens of beloved standards still heard today, such as “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “The Way You Look Tonight.” The Jerome Kern Encyclopedia consists of entries on people, theatre and film musicals, songs, subjects, and themes related to the composer. Not only are all of Kern’s stage and screen projects from 1904 to 1946 covered, but there are also entries on all the major librettists and lyricists with whom he worked, as well as producers, directors, actors, and other individuals who figured prominently in his career. Approximately 100 of Kern’s most important songs are discussed, and other entries address awards, collaborations, working methods, song styles, and other related subjects. The encyclopedia also includes a brief biography of Kern, a chronology of his life and work, and appendices on recordings, interpolations, revivals, and remakes. The most complete work on one of America’s greatest composers, this fascinating, readable, and extensive look at Kern will appeal totheatregoers, movie musical fans, students, teachers, and professionals in musical theatre.

Every major singer from Frank Sinatra to Christina Aguilera. Every major composer from Irving Berlin to Stephen Sondheim. Every major song from a century of favorites. Every major musician and lyricist. Every major styling from blues, jazz, and country to folk, big band, and rock and roll The most recorded songs of all time. A guide to understanding the "standard" lingo. The evolution of popular music from Tin Pan Alley to contemporary musical theater, and more.