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Frank Sinatra's influence on American popular culture has been wide reaching and long lasting. This diverse collection of essays written by historians, music critics, and popular culture personalities offers a myriad of perspectives and commentaries on this multitalented legend. The essays attest to the interest in Sinatra that has spanned six decades and shows no sign of diminishing--even after his death. From singer to actor, from mass media personality to humanitarian and cultural trendsetter, the many contributions of Frank Sinatra are brought to life in this entertaining...

Mordechai Gebirtig was one of the most influential and popular writers of Yiddish songs and poems. Born in 1877, he became a prolific poet and song writer, using everything he saw, heard and knew about people. His legacy, therefore, is not only one of melodies and lyrics, but also a treatise on Jewish life in Poland under the benign neglect of the Austrians, the ever growing hostility of the Poles, and finally, the terror of the Germans, who destroyed the people, their culture, and, to a great measure, their memory. Schneider's book for the first time brings his work to an English-speaking...

Studies of Latin American music often overlook its Cuban roots and the political policies that brought the musicians to the United States. This work rectifies that omission by examining the Afro-Cuban influence upon Latin American music and its various idioms. A brief history of Afro-Cuban musicians in the United States provides the background and context for the study. Influential pre-revolutionary Afro-Cuban immigrant musicians, such as Mongo SantamarIa, Jesus Caunedo, Charanga and Pup Legarreta, Juan Carlos Formell, and Alfredo Chocolate Armenteros, discuss both their music and their...

Following the second World War, Olivier Messiaen, previously known primarily for his religious music, composed three works inspired by the medieval love story of Tristan and Iseult: Harawi, Turangal DEGREESDla-symphonie, and Cinq rechants. Though the song cycle, symphony, and choral work each consider their source story in a different way, the three compositions are tied closely together by theme and musical technique. This new study is the only full-length consideration of this most significant work, applying literary techniques of stylistic analysis and source...

Exposing the depth of two major artists' philosophies, creative visions, stylistic tendencies, and contributions to their craft, this unprecedented comparative analysis synthesizes biographical material, critical interpretation, and selected exemplars of the writers' work. Smith reinterprets their work in a new and fascinating light, presenting Dylan as a songwriter of enigmatic wordplay and Springsteen as the melodramatic narrator of a specific community's life struggles.

Both songwriters have had unique responses to the celebrity singer/songwriter tradition begun by Woody...

The five countries that make up Northern Europe--Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland--have, over the course of the last several centuries, developed and unique and viable art music history that easily rivals that of their continental neighbors. "Nordic Art Music: From the Middle Ages to the Third Millennium" provides an informative and accessible overview of the fascinating historical and aesthetic developments of this music and its creators, from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, through the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, to the beginning of this new century. Though...

In July of 1884, pianist Calixa Lavallee performed a recital of works by American composers that began a highly influential series of such concerts. Over the course of the next decade, hundreds of all-American concerts were performed in the United States and Europe, a movement that fostered both the development and the perception of American music as a unique art form. "A Tidal Wave of Encouragement"-the title of which is derived from one observer's description of the movement-is the first in-depth study of this significant period in American music. Providing a comprehensive history of the...

Known primarily as the composer of The Nutcracker Suite and other legendary pieces, Tchaikovsky was also a noted musical dramatist. Here, in the first book devoted to the subject, his operas are explored in depth: from his two most famous, Eugene Oneginand The Queen of Spades, to such lesser-known works as The Maid of Orleans. The social and psychological complexity of these operas, not to mention their musical brilliance, confirm Tchaikovsky's reputation as his country's greatest opera composer. He displayed great versatility in the range of genres in which he...

Offering a fresh perspective on the making of the American nation, Forging America: New Lands and High Culture shows how the various new portions of the country--the Northeastern wilderness, the West, and later the South and Midwest--were assimilated into the national and intellectual consciousness of the young nation. Specifically, author David P. DeVenney examines the ways in which the arts helped achieve this assimilation, primarily through music and painting, but also through literature and architecture. The search for American-ness in the arts, for what it meant to be an...

For half a century, television spies have been trained professionals, reluctant heroes, housewives, businessmen, criminals, and comedians. They have by turns been glamorous, campy, reflective, sexy, and aloof. This is the first book-length treatment of one of TV's oldest and most fascinating genres. Britton's comprehensive guide provides readers, from casual viewers to die-hard fans, with behind-the-scenes stories to this notable segment of television entertainment.

From the early 1960s, in which television spies were used essentially as anti-Communist propaganda, through the subsequent...

Few in popular music have had as varied a career and as lasting an impact as Bob Dylan. His songs have entered the cultural consciousness in a way that some have called revolutionary. In this bold and comprehensive new study--the definitive guide to Dylan's work--author Larry David Smith explores the convergence of biography, artistic philosophy, and musical style in Bob Dylan's oeuvre. Making the case that Bob Dylan is actually a persona carefully crafted by its maker, the former Robert Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minnesota, Writing Dylan represents a new and authoritative contribution...

The interviews included in this fascinating collection of discussions with popular songwriters focus on the craft itself--and as such, they are of interest to both music fans and to budding songwriters. What inspires songwriters? Where do their songs come from? What is their process? What do they do when they get stuck? In this book, readers will hear from a vast range of well-known, successful songwriters, many of them performers as well, revealing the nuances of their skill: how they write their songs, from conception to finished work. The book discusses both song history and style. The...

Since his professional debut in 1962, Stevie Wonder has recorded sixty-four singles that have made the "Billboard" top 100, including ten that reached number one. Wonder was one of the first Motown artists to have complete control over the writing, arranging, and recording of his songs, and achieved that stature before he was 20 years old. He has won 17 Grammy awards, was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and earned the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. Equally important, his work as a producer, arranger, and instrumentalist on other artists' recordings has put...

This is the first book to move beyond the details of Zappa's biography toward a focused treatment of his songs. Zappa worked in a musical realm unfamiliar to many radio listeners. Today, his music can be appreciated as a whole, emerging as a coherent, thoughtful, innovative--if somewhat daunting--body of work. Lowe has left no aspect of that work unexamined, from Zappa's role as a satirist of the highest order, to his place in the genre of progressive rock, and his importance as one of the foremost critics of American culture and society. Zappa's messages--musical and lyrical--may not...

Throughout his life and perhaps even more since his death in 1981 at the age of 36, Bob Marley's music has demonstrated a unique ability to combine with almost any cultural setting, no matter how different the elements might at first appear. Through his adaptable, yet enduring musical messages, he represents an especially articulate type of singer-songwriter. Marley released a large quantity of introspective, autobiographical material at the height of his success and it is thus only in a work such as this--in which the artist is investigated through his recorded output--that one can...

Bruce Springsteen's career has been covered many times over, yet many of the complexities and apparent contradictions of his music remain unresolved. Rob Kirkpatrick provides a comprehensive and coherent look at the work of this thoroughly complex and persistently captivating artist. After a brief biographical treatment, Kirkpatrick considers all of Springsteen's significant albums in chronological order. These include "Born to Run, " which was voted the most popular album of all time in a recently published Zagat survey; "Born in the U.S.A., " which sold more than 20 million copies; and...

This long overdue examination of Carole King offers her legions of fans the chance to see how her work has developed over time, understand what her music means to other contemporary performers, and grasp its significance in American music at large.

Name a Carole King song. Anyone who's been a fan of popular music over the past 45 years should be able to do it with ease. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, Take Good Care Of My Baby, The Locomotion, One Fine Day, Up On The Roof, A Natural Woman, I Feel The Earth Move, Smackwater Jack, It's Too Late, So Far Away, You've Got A Friend. Few...

Paul Simon is commonly acknowledged to be one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the pop-rock era. His work has flourished in the context of Simon and Garfunkel as well as in his own solo career. Starting with the folk-rock style that marked his earliest significant success, he has drawn on a wide variety of influences, including many American traditions and, later, many international ones as well. He has won multiple Grammy awards in both the duo and the solo phases of his career. His songwriting has also provided the impetus for brief forays into film and musical theatre. After...

Despite John Lennon's immense popularity, little attention has been paid to his work apart from the Beatles. Yet his solo artistry not only illuminates what he gave to the Beatles, but also constitutes a significant contribution to popular music in general. Lennon was able to fuse experiments in technology, instrumentation, lyrics, and musical form into recordings that were both artistically and commercially successful. Few singer-songwriters have been his equal. In this long overdue investigation, authors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen give Lennon's artistry the opportunity to speak for itself....

All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine has written, Even when he was out of fashion in the '80s and '90s, it was clear that Bowie was one of the most influential musicians in rock, for better or worse. In this comprehensive analysis of David Bowie's career, author James Perone examines the many identities and styles Bowie has developed over the years, and in so doing provides a stunning chronicle of creativity at work.

Born David Jones in a London suburb in 1947, David Bowie changed his name in the late '60s to avoid confusion with the singer David Jones of The...