Musicians - Irving Berlin

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	Musicians - Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989), born Israel Isidore Beilin (as per ), in Tyumen, Russia (or possibly Mogilev, now Belarus), was an American composer and lyricist, one of the most prodigious and famous American songwriters in history. Berlin got his start as a lyricist for other composers, and although he never learned how to play a piano or read music beyond a rudimentary level, he wrote over 3,000 songs. About half of Berlin's works became popular on Broadway and in Hollywood, leaving an indelible mark on American music and culture with hits such as God Bless America, White Christmas, and There's No Business Like Show Business. Berlin produced 17 film scores and 21 Broadway scores in addition to his individual songs.

Early years

Irving Berlin was born to a Jewish family. His family immigrated to the United States in 1893. His parents were Lena Jarchin and Moses Beilin, who was a rabbi and obtained work certifying kosher meat (see ). Following the death of his father in 1896, Irving found himself having to work to survive. He did various street jobs including selling newspapers and busking. The harsh economic reality of having to work or starve was to have a lasting effect on the way Berlin treated money. While working as a singing waiter at Pelham's Cafe in Chinatown, Berlin was asked by the proprietor to write an original song for the cafe because a rival tavern had had their own song published. "Marie from Sunny Italy" was the result and it was soon published. Although it only earned him 37 cents, it gave him a new career and a new name: Israel Baline was misprinted as "I. Berlin" on the sheet music.

Early work

In 1911 the hit song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" launched a musical career that would include over a thousand songs. Richard Corliss, in a Time Magazine profile of Berlin in 2001, wrote:

Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911). It was a march, not a rag, and its savviest musicality comprised quotes from a bugle call and Swanee River. But the tune, which revived the ragtime fervor that Scott Joplin had stoked a decade earlier, made Berlin a songwriting star. On its first release, four versions of the tune charted at #1, #2, #3 and #4. Bessie Smith, in 1927, and Louis Armstrong, in 1937, made the top 20 with their interpretations. In 1938 the song was #1 again, in a duet by Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell; another Crosby duet, this time with Al Jolson, hit the top-20 in 1947. Johnny Mercer
charted a swing version in 1945, and Nellie Lutcher put it on the R&B charts (#13) in 1948. Add Ray Charles
' brilliant big-band take in 1959, and "Alexander" had a dozen hit versions in a bit under a half century (see ).

There is some evidence that Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band was lifted from Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha.

In 1917, during World War I, he was drafted into the United States Army and staged a musical revue Yip Yip Yaphank while at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York. Billed as "a military mess cooked up by the boys of Camp Union," the show cast 350 members of the armed forces. The revue was a patriotic tribute to the United States Army, and Berlin composed a song entitled God Bless America for the show, but decided against using it. When it was released years later, God Bless America proved so popular that during the 1930s it was even considered for the National Anthem, but was rejected by the press in part because it came from a Jewish composer. The Yaphank revue was later included in the 1943 movie This Is the Army featuring other Berlin songs, including the famous title piece, as well as a full-length rendition of God Bless America by Kate Smith. It remains to this day one of his most successful songs and one of the most widely-known in the United States. A particularly famous rendition occurred after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when members of the United States Congress stood together on the steps of the Capitol building and sang Berlin's tune (see).

Berlin's 1926 hit song "Blue Skies" became another American classic, and was featured in the first talkie (motion picture with sound), Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer. In 1946, a Berlin musical with the same title revived the song's popularity, and it reached #8 with Count Basie and #9 with Benny Goodman.(see).

Major hits

Berlin was responsible for many Hollywood film scores including Top Hat (1935) and Holiday Inn (1942), which included White Christmas, one of the most-recorded tunes in American history.

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Musicians - Irving Berlin

Early years

Early work

Major hits

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