The passing of Steve Lawrence on March 7 and the death of Tony Bennett last July brought to mind the fact that the singers who performed songs from the “Great American Songbook” have passed from the scene.

I was exposed to and became interested in the American Songbook at an early age. It probably all started when my mom and dad took me to see movies based on the lives of several big band era leaders where I came to enjoy that style of music, much of it part of the “Song Book. and still do. I do like the music of the Beatles and the Beach Boys because a lot of their music could qualify for the book.

The “Great American Song Book” began being “compiled” around 1925 when electronic recording replaced acoustic recording. It was not a published work but rather an informal collection of some 450 pop songs that varies based on who is doing the collecting. Most were composed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Here are a few of the composers and lyricists of the era with a few example of their work:

Buffalo’s Harold Arlen with lyricist E.Y. Harburg wrote “Over the Rainbow,” and “Let’s Fall in Love”, and with lyricist Johnny Mercer “Blues in the Night,” and “That Old Black Magic.”

Irving Berlin’s compositions include “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “When I Lost You”, “How Deep Is the Ocean”, “God Bless America,” and “White Christmas.”

George and Ira Gershwin’s compositions included “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Summertime,” and “A Foggy Day.”

Johnny Mercer’s compositions include “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe”, and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening.”

Cole Porter’s works include “Night and Day, “Begin the Beguine,” and “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love.”

Rodgers and Hammerstein composed “Hello, Young Lovers”, “Younger Than Springtime,” and “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin.”

Harry Warren composed “At Last,” “There Will Never Be Another You,” “I Had the Craziest Dream”, and “The More I See You.”

The songs were written for Broadway shows, Hollywood Musicals, or were the product of a warren of music publishing offices that took its name from the tinkling of pianos that could be heard on the street. Located in New York on West 28th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway it became known as Tin Pan Alley. It is this music that today we still call standards which social commentator Ben Yagoda describes as “A song that is capable of being played and

interpreted again and again, by different performers in creative ways. They’re songs that have stood the test of time….”

Lawrence and Bennett were the end of a long line of singers who placed equal emphasis on the lyrics and music of a song and varied their repertoire by singing in several styles and genres.

The first of these and arguably the best was Bing Crosby who became a star while singing with Paul Whiteman’s band in 1926. Crosby was, by his own definition, a “phraser,” a singer who placed equal emphasis on lyrics and music. Crosby bent notes and added off-tune phrasing to create drama and emotional effect, an approach that was rooted in jazz that Crosby copied from the phrasing of Whiteman trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke.

Crosby believed in the art of making a song’s lyric ring true so that they told the story or expressed the emotions that the composer and the singer wished to convey. Band leader Tommy Dorsey once said that “I used to tell Sinatra over and over “there’s only one singer you ought to listen to and his name is Crosby. All that matters to him is the words…”

The era produced some great singers, some of whom got their start with the big bands. These included Frank Sinatra who sang with harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams who sang with the great Count Basie, Perry Como who started out with Ted Weems, Bob Eberle and Helen O’Connell who performed wonderful vocals with the great Jimmy Dorsey band, singer and later movie star Doris Day who served two stints with “Les Brown and His Band of Renown,” and the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald who in so many ways made the “Great American Songbook her book. And there were others such as Goodman’s, James’ and Shaw’s Helen Forrest, Kay Kyser’s Harry Babbit and Ginny Sims, Earl “Father” Hines, Billy Eckstein, Tony Pastor’s Rosemary Clooney, and Tommy Dorsey’s Jo Stafford.

And there were other singers like Nat King Cole who was a great vocalist but also considered by many the greatest jazz pianist of the era. And there was Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Dinah Shore, Lena Horne, the underrated Dean Martin, Anita O’Day, Sara Vaughn, and Steve Lawrences’ wife Eydie Gorme.

The era of the Great American Song Book was not only rich with talent but with music that has passed the test of time. You can understand and remember the words and whistle or hum the tune. It is an era whose time is past, but whose music will continue to be loved. played and listened to by many.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com.