If those words grab your interest, you probably listen to Jonathan Schwartz on the radio and you saw the New York Times review of Wilfred Sheed's newest. It's The House That George Built:with a little help from Irving, Cole and a crew of about fifty. And you probably have the lyrics & tunes of many (1900-1950) songs in the readily accessible part of your memory. Sheed has written what he calls "the great bull session in the sky" to fill in the details of how all those memorable songs were created. He starts with Irving Berlin, continues with Gershwin, Arlen, Carmichael, Ellington and on to Cy Coleman "and the future." It's the insider's ramble through the history of American popular music, much like Max Wilk's They're Playing Our Song, a book Sheed calls the "only other essential book on the subject." Westport resident Wilk makes several appearances in Sheed's stories of how the collaborations, the rebellions against domineering fathers, the effects of the headlines, sheer talent and serendipity converged to blend words and music into those everlasting songs. If standard American popular music is your cup of tea, you will want to linger over this satisfying brew of a book.
Mark your calendar: Max Wilk will speak at the Library on Wednesday October 10 at noon on his newest book The Making of the Sound of Music. In the 1950s, Mary Martin owned the rights to the Van Trapp family story and hired writers and Rodgers & Hammerstein to produce it on Broadway. Wilk was present from the first drafts to the eventual triumph of the play that, in spite of almost unanimous dire predictions, the audiences loved.
