PERFORMING ARTS

The Great American Songbook: 201 Favorites You Ought To Know (& Love)

by Steven Suskin
Backbeat: Rowman & Littlefield. Apr. 2023. 296p. ISBN 9781493070947. pap. $24.95. MUSIC
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Musical theater critic and historian Suskin (Offstage Observations: Inside Tales of the Not-So-Legitimate Theatre) makes his own occasionally idiosyncratic but always informed choice of 201 of his favorite songs, mostly from musical theater and film, created between the 1920s and the 1960s. There’s one exception: Harold Arlen’s “I Had a Love Once,” written in 1973 but not published until 1985. Many choices are familiar, and Suskin deliberately includes lost gems from the Golden Age of American song. Readers may find some of his choices puzzling: like “Another Autumn” from the Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon, instead of the production’s lyrical “I Talk to the Trees.” But every song has a reason, and no one knows this topic better than this author. One- to two-page entries balance musical knowledge with the appreciation of lyrics and the songs’ production histories.
VERDICT From A (“Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”) to Z (“Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart”), this book will delight lovers of American pop songs. But those who don’t read music will find it hard to follow Suskin’s dissection of melody lines, rhythm accents, and key changes, which makes up half or more of each entry.
Reviewed by David Keymer , Apr 01, 2023
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