Great American Song Book Reading List

Want to learn more about the Great American Songbook? Select from this non-exhaustive, and highly informative, list of publications to build your knowledge of this special music.
 

• Bloom, Ken. The American Songbook: The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2005.
• Friedwald, Will. A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers. New York: Pantheon Books, 2010.
• Furia, Philip. Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Gershwin, Ira. Lyrics on Several Occasions: A Selection of Stage & Screen Lyrics. New York: Viking Press, 1973.
• Goldberg, Isaac. Tin Pan Alley: A Chronicle of American Popular Music. New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1961.
• Jablonski, Edward. Harold Arlen: Rhythm, Rainbows, and Blues. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996.
• Jablonski, Edward. Irving Berlin: American Troubadour. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
• Jasen, David A. Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song. New York: Routledge, 2003.
• Kimball, Robert Gottlieb and Robert, ed. Reading Lyrics. New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.
• Lehman, David. A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs. Jewish Encounters. New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2009.
• Morath, Max. The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Popular Standards. New York: Berkley Pub. Group, 2002.
• Pollack, Howard. George Gershwin: His Life and Work. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
• Sheed, Wilfrid. The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty. New York: Random House, 2007.
• Sudhalter, Richard M. Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Whitcomb, Ian. After the Ball. New York: Proscenium Publishers, 1986.
• Wilk, Max. They're Playing Our Song: From Jerome Kern to Stephen Sondheim - the Stories Behind the Words and Music of Two Generations. New York: Athenaeum, 1973.
• Woollcott, Alexander. The Story of Irving Berlin. New York; London: G.P. Putnam's sons, 1925.