They are self-contained in that the pianist can capture the melodic line of the song and the accompaniment without a vocalist. The book is thick but fits comfortably on the music stand of a piano. I found this book prominently displayed in the local library and wanted to take a look and try the music. I try to play classical piano when I listen to popular music, I turn more often to blues or early rock & roll which are beyond to scope of the Great American Songbook. This is not the music I most often play or hear. The songs included in this volume represent part of America's broad musical heritage and constitute a substantial achievement. The composers of the songs, included in the Songbook and in this collection include Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Walter Donaldson, Richard Rogers, Frank Loesser, and more. Ella Fitzgerald, among others, has recorded extensively under the title The Great American Songbook. The precise content and number of the songs in the "Great American Songbook" is a matter for judgment. The songs are American staples and most of them will be familiar to many listeners. Instead it is used to indicate the show tunes largely from Broadway, live theatre, or Hollywood musicals composed roughly in the first half of the 20th Century. The term does not refer to a book or to a specific song collection per se. The volume doesn't explain the much-used term "The Great American Songbook" and it is worth considering what it means. There is a separate volume in this series which is arranged by composer. The composers and lyricists are credited at the top of each song, but there is no specific index for them. They include, Louis Armstrong, Betty Carter, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Blosom Dearie, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Dinah Washington, and more. (The songs, of course are standards, each of which has been sung by many people.) The book also includes photos and brief single paragraph biographies of the 28 singers featured in the volume. The subtitle "the Singers" indicates that the songs are organized in the table of contents by the singers who made them famous. This book, "The Great American Songbook: The Singers" includes sheet music with lyrics, guitar chords, and piano for 100 classical 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. 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. They sang in nightclubs and concert halls, on television and in films, and left us a legacy of recordings still in play today. 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.
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