Great Jews

10 Great Jewish Songwriters

"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point in this business. You've got to keep on working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there."

- Irving Berlin

"How to write a song? I suppose a good method is to arrange to be born into a theatrical family."

- Dorothy Fields

“Sammy's words fit my mouth the best of all the writers.”

- Frank Sinatra (on Sammy Cahn)

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Irving Berlin (Israel Baline)

(b. 1888, Temun, Russia; d. 1989, New York, NY, USA)

Composer who helped launch 20th-century American popular music. Self-taught, he wrote the words and music for over 900 songs including "God Bless America" and "White Christmas". He also wrote 19 musicals and the scores for 18 films and reached the peak of his career in the 1940s with musical hits Annie get Your Gun and Call Me Madam. In 1954 he received a special presidential citation as a composer of patriotic songs.

More on Irving Berlin

Michael Feinstein sings three Irving Berlin tunes

Books:

Irving Berlin, Irving Berlin Anthology (Hal Leonard Corporation, 1994)

Laurence Bergreen, Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin (Da Capo, 2001)

Mary Ellen Barrett and Irving Berlin, Irving Berlin: A Daughter's Memoir (Limelight Editions, 2004)

Jim Whiting, The Life and Times of Irving Berlin (Masters of Music) (Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2003)

 

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Jerome (David) Kern

(b. 1885, New York, NY, USA; 1945, New York, NY, USA)

Major American composer of popular music. As a youth he studied music at the New York College of Music and in Heidelberg, Germany. He wrote hundreds of songs for musical theatre both in London and New York, many of which have become standards. He won two Oscars, for Swing Time (1936) and Lady be Good (1941)

More on Jerome Kern

Platters - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Books:

Jerome Kern, The Best of Jerome Kern (Hal Leonard Corporation ,1993)

Stephen Banfield, Jerome Kern (Yale Broadway Masters Series) (Yale University Press, 2006)

David Ewen, The World of Jerome Kern: A biography (Holt,1960)

Gerald Bordman, Jerome Kern: His Life and Music (Oxford University Press, USA, 1990)

 

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Jule Styne (Julius Kerwin Stein)

(b. 1905, London, England; d. 1994, New York, NY,USA)

Renowned songwriter and one of the architects of American musical theatre. He studied piano as a child in London and Chicago, later playing in dance bands and accompanying stars such as Fanny Brice and Al Jolson. He composed notable scores for the Broadway stage with lyricists such as Sammy Cahn, Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Stephen Sondheim and won an Oscar in 1954 for Best Song ('Three Coins in the Fountain").

More on Jule Styne

Debbie Reynolds - Time After Time

Books:

Jule Styne, The Songs of Jule Styne (Hal Leonard Corporation, 1989)

Theodore Taylor, Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne (Random House, 1979)

 

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Lionel Bart (Lionel Begleiter)

(b. 1930, London, England; d. 1999, New York, NY, USA)

Composer, lyricist and playwright. Born in London's East End, the son of an immigrant tailor, he started his musical career writing lyrics for amateur theatre. He achieved success in the 1950s writing pop songs for singers such as Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard, winning several Ivor Novello Song Awards. He is best known for his work for musical theatre, including the West End hits Fings Ain't Wot They Used t'Be (1959), Oliver! (1960) and Blitz! (1962). 

Lionel Bart: Appetite for destruction

Oliver! - As Long As He Needs Me

Books:

David Roper, Bart! The Unauthorized Life & Times, Ins And Outs, Ups And Downs Of Lionel Bart (Pavilion, London, 1994)

Mary Hastings, Oliver and His Friends: Adapted from the Screenplay Based on Lionel Bart's "Oliver!" Freely Adapted from Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" (Collins, UK, 1968)

 

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Yip Harburg (Isidore Hochberg)

(b . 1896, New York, NY, USA; d. 1981, Los Angeles, California, USA)

 

Lyricist and librettist often referred to as "Broadway's social conscience", he was born to orthodox Russian Jews in Manhattan's Lower East Side. He attended

Townsend Harris High School, where he met his lifelong friend Ira Gershwin, and went on to study at City College. His song writing career began in 1929 after his electrical appliance company went bankrupt and in 1932 he captured the mood of the time with the melancholy "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" (with music by Jay Gorney). Among his best known songs are "April in Paris" (with Vernon Duke), the Academy Award-winning "Over the Rainbow" (with Harold Arlen, from The Wizard of Oz) and "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" (with Burton Lane, from Finian's Rainbow).

Harburg Foundation

Al Jolson - Brother can you spare a Dime

Books:

Yip Harburg, Rhymes for the Irreverent (Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., 2006)

Harold Meyerson, Ernie Harburg, Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz?: Yip Harburg, Lyricist (University of Michigan Press, 1995)

Yip Harburg, The Yip Harburg Songbook: Over the Rainbow; Brother, Can You Spare a Dime: It's Only a Paper Moon: April in Paris, and Other Great Classics (Alfred Publishing Company, 1999)

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Jerry Herman (Gerald Herman)
(b. 1931, New York, NY, USA)

Composer and lyricist of tuneful Broadway musicals such as Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Mack and Mabel and La Cage aux Folles. His first Broadway show was Milk and Honey (1961), a romantic comedy set in Israel. Some of his show songs that have become popular in their own right are "Hello, Dolly!", "If He Walked into My Life" (from Mame), "I Am What I Am" (from La Cage aux Folles) and "I Won't Send Roses" (from Mack & Mabel). He has received many awards and honours, including two Tony Awards, and has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Theater Hall of Fame.
Jerry Herman Authorized Website

I Won't Send Roses - Michael Feinstein - Mack & Mabel

Books:

Ken Bloom, Jerry Herman, Jerry Herman: The Lyrics, A Celebration (Routledge, 2003)

Stephen Citron, Jerry Herman: Poet of the Showtune (Yale University Press, 2004

Jerry Herman, Marilyn Stasio, Showtune: A Memoir (Dutton Adult, 1996)

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Dorothy Fields

(b. 1905, Allenhurst, New Jersey, USA; d. 1974, New Yok, NY, USA)

Daughter of a famous vaudeville performer, she became the writer of stylish lyrics for Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Holywood. She worked with composers Cy Colman, Jimmy McHugh, Jerome Kern and others, and her songs range from "The Way You Look Tonight" (from Swing Time, 1936) to "Big Spender" (from Sweet Charity, 1966). She was the first woman to be elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1971).

The Dorothy Fields Website

Rhythm of Life

Books:

Deborah Grace Winer, Dorothy Fields, On the Sunny Side of the Street: The Life and Lyrics of Dorothy Fields (Schimer Books, 1997)