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Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was born in Russia in 1888. His family emigrated
to New York when he was a child. When he was 13 or 14 years
old, his father died and he bacame a street singer to make
money. From there he worked his way up to singing waiter and
then song plugger and writer of lyrics. Eventually he wrote
so many hit songs, both the words and lyrics that he was able
to open his own publishing house and produce his own musical
reviews on Broadway and to write for movies which starred
Fred Astair. He lived to be 101 years old and wrote over a
thousand songs. Even though he was a school dropout, such
was his level of self education that he wrote words and music
so sophisticated that today, most of his songs would be too
mature to attract the mass audience that the music business
now requires. You can find his songs on albums by Fred Astaire
and Ginger Rogers and in the musicals ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and
CALL ME MADAM. Look for the Roy Smeck--Irving Berlin ukulele
song book shown on the song books page of this site.
Cole Porter
Cole Porter, second only to Irving Berlin among American
composers ,was born in 1891 in Peru, Indiana, and was well-off
all of his life because of his family's wealth. He studied
music at Yale and in Paris and wrote music for shows from
the time he was in college. Some of the hit shows he wrote
for Broadway were later made into movies including THE GAY
DIVORVCEE, KISS ME KATE, SILK STOCKINGS, and DUBARRY WAS A
LADY, and these movies are available to be rented. Songs you
should try on your ukulele include "Night and Day",
"Anything Goes", "Just One of Those Things",
"Brush Up Your Shakespeare", and "My Heart
Belongs to Daddy".
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was born in New York City in 1898. His family
bought a piano for his brother and George learned to play.
At the age of fifteen after music instruction which included
study with some of the best American composers, he dropped
out of school and became professional. Today he is best remembered
as the composer of "Rhapsody In Blue" and PORGY
AND BESS which are not nearly as much fun as his other works
such as OF THEE I SING (BABY), a prize winning musical produced
in 1931, and LET THEM EAT CAKE in 1933 the sequel. His biggest
hit was "Swanee" written in 1918, when he was 19
years old and sung to great effect by Al Jolson. A few of
his other many great songs are "Embraceable You",
"S'Wondeful", "Someone To Watch Over Me",
"The Man I Love", and "I Got Rhythm".
Grab all the Gershwin sheet music you can find.
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