Great American Songbook

El Great American Songbook, el cancionero americano, es un término que engloba las más conocidas composiciones de la cultura popular de los Estado Unidos de América del s. XX,^[1] la mayoría de las cuales fueron escritas en Tin Pan Alley para Broadway y Hollywood entre 1920 y 1960.^[2] Muchos de los temas del Great American Songbook se han convertido en estándares de jazz. Los compositores y letristas más citados en el Songbook incluyen a Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael y Harold Arlen.

Irving Berlin, uno de los compositores y letrista más prolíficos del Great American Songbook.

Richard Rodgers y Lorenz Hart

Canciones y autores

Aunque no existe ninguna lista "oficial", hay un gran consenso acerca de las composiciones de compositores y letristas como los siguientes:

• Harold Arlen (with E.Y. Harburg "Over the Rainbow", "It's Only a Paper Moon"; con Ted Koehler "Stormy Weather", "I've Got the World on a String", "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues", "Let's Fall in Love"); con Johnny Mercer ("Blues in the Night", "That Old Black Magic", "One for My Baby",^[3] "Come Rain or Come Shine", "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive"; y con Ira Gershwin "The Man that Got Away")
• Irving Berlin ("Alexander's Ragtime Band",^[3] "When I Lost You", "How Deep Is the Ocean", "God Bless America", "White Christmas",^[3] "Always", "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody", "Blue Skies", "Cheek to Cheek", "Puttin' on the Ritz", "Let's Face the Music and Dance", "There's No Business Like Show Business")
• Hoagy Carmichael ("Stardust", "Georgia on My Mind",^[4] "Lazy River", "The Nearness of You", "Skylark")
• Walter Donaldson muchas con letra de Gus Kahn ("My Baby Just Cares For Me", "My Blue Heaven", "Love Me Or Leave Me", "Carolina in the Morning", "My Mammy", "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry?", "Yes Sir, That's My Baby", "Makin' Whoopee", "You're Driving Me Crazy", "Little White Lies"")
• Vernon Duke ("April In Paris", "Autumn In New York", "I Can't Get Started", "Taking A Chance On Love")
• Duke Ellington ("In a Sentimental Mood", "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)", "Satin Doll" (con Billy Strayhorn), "Mood Indigo", "Sophisticated Lady", "Take the "A" Train", "I'm Beginning to See the Light")
• Sammy Fain ("I'll Be Seeing You", "That Old Feeling", "Love is a Many Splendored Thing", "April Love", "Tender is the Night")
• George y Ira Gershwin ("Someone to Watch Over Me", "'S Wonderful", "Summertime", "A Foggy Day", "But Not For Me", "Embraceable You", "I Got Rhythm", "Fascinating Rhythm", "The Man I Love", "They Can't Take That Away from Me", "Our Love Is Here to Stay", "Strike Up the Band")
• Ray Henderson ("Bye Bye Blackbird", "I'm Sitting On Top Of The World", "The Birth of the Blues", "The Thrill Is Gone", "The Best Things In Life Are Free", "Sonny Boy", "You're the Cream in My Coffee")
• Herman Hupfeld ("As Time Goes By", "Let's Put Out the Lights (and Go to Sleep)")
• Bart Howard ("Fly Me to the Moon")
• Isham Jones con letra de Gus Kahn ("It Had to Be You", "I'll See You in My Dreams")
• Jerome Kern con letra de Dorothy Fields ("A Fine Romance", "Pick Yourself Up", "The Way You Look Tonight"); con letra de Ira Gershwin ("Long Ago (and Far Away)"); con letra de Oscar Hammerstein II ("All the Things You Are", "Folks Who Live on the Hill", "Ol' Man River", "The Song Is You"); con letra de Otto Harbach ( "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Yesterdays")
• Frank Loesser ("If I Were A Bell", "On A Slow Boat To China", "Standing On The Corner", "Baby, It's Cold Outside", "Luck Be A Lady")
• Jimmy McHugh ("I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby", "I'm in the Mood for Love", "Don't Blame Me", "On the Sunny Side of the Street", "Exactly Like You", "It's a Most Unusual Day")
• Johnny Mercer "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", "In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening", "Moon River",^[3] y "Days of Wine and Roses";^[5] "Dream", "Something's Gotta Give", and "I Wanna Be Around"; letra para "Midnight Sun", "Day In, Day Out",^[3] "Laura", and "I Remember You")
• Cole Porter ("Night and Day", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Begin the Beguine", "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love", "What Is This Thing Called Love?", "Too Darn Hot", "Love for Sale", "You're the Top", "Just One of Those Things", "All of You", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye", "In the Still of the Night", "It's De-Lovely", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", "I Concentrate on You", "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To", "So in Love", "Anything Goes", "You Do Something to Me")
• Rodgers y Hammerstein ("You'll Never Walk Alone", "Hello, Young Lovers", "Younger Than Springtime", "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'", "People Will Say We're in Love", "It Might as Well Be Spring", "If I Loved You", "Happy Talk", "Some Enchanted Evening", "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top", "Shall We Dance?", "My Favorite Things", "Something Wonderful", "Climb Every Mountain", "Edelweiss", "I Enjoy Being A Girl","The Sound Of Music", "A Wonderful Guy")
• Rodgers y Hart ("Slaughter on 10th Avenue", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "With a Song in My Heart", "Falling In Love With Love", "My Romance", "Have You Met Miss Jones?", "My Funny Valentine", "Blue Moon", "Blue Room", "I Could Write a Book", "It's Easy To Remember", "It Never Entered My Mind", "Manhattan", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Little Girl Blue", "Mimi", "My Heart Stood Still", "Spring Is Here", "A Ship Without a Sail", "Thou Swell", "Lover", "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", "Isn't It Romantic?", "Where or When", "Glad to Be Unhappy", "You Took Advantage of Me", "This Can't Be Love", "Mountain Greenery")
• Arthur Schwartz y Howard Dietz ("Dancing in the Dark", "You and the Night and the Music", "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan", "Alone Together", "Haunted Heart", "That's Entertainment!"
• Jule Styne ("Time After Time", "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry", "I Fall In Love Too Easily", "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", "People", "Don't Rain on My Parade", "Just In Time", "Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)")
• Jimmy Van Heusen muchas con letra de Johnny Burke y Sammy Cahn ("All the Way", "Swinging on a Star", "Darn That Dream", "Polka Dots and Moonbeams", "But Beautiful", "Come Fly with Me", "Imagination", "Like Someone in Love", "Call Me Irresponsible", "I Thought About You", "Here's That Rainy Day", "It Could Happen To You", "Love Is The Tender Trap", "Ain't That a Kick in the Head")
• Harry Warren ("At Last", "There Will Never Be Another You", "An Affair To Remember", "I Had The Craziest Dream", "The More I See You", "Forty-Second Street", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Lullaby of Broadway", "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "This Is Always", "Jeepers Creepers",^[3] "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby", "September In The Rain", "Lulu's Back In Town", "You're My Everything", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", "This Heart of Mine", "You'll Never Know", "My Dream Is Yours", "I Wish I Knew", "Serenade In Blue", "Nagasaki", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "That's Amore", "Innamorata")
• Richard Whiting ("Till We Meet Again", "Ain't We Got Fun", "Hooray for Hollywood",^[3] "Beyond the Blue Horizon", "On the Good Ship Lollipop", "Too Marvelous for Words")
• Jack Yellen con Milton Ager ("Happy Days Are Here Again ", "Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah)")
• Vincent Youmans ("Tea For Two", "Time On My Hands", "More Than You Know", "(The) Carioca", "Sometimes I'm Happy", "Without a Song", "I Want to Be Happy")
• Victor Young ("I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You", "Stella by Starlight", "Love Letters", "My Foolish Heart", "When I Fall in Love", "Around the World")

Artistas

Muchas cantantes y músicos han grabado expresamente las canciones queforman parte del Great American Songbook. En este sentido, artistas como Ella Fitzgerald, cuya extensa obra grabado para Verve en las décadas de 1950 y 1960 incluían más de 250 canciones del Songbook. Otros artístas que han hecho híncapie en grabar el Great American Songbook incluyen Fred Astaire, Chet Baker, Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennett, June Christy, Rosemary Clooney, Nat "King" Cole, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Doris Day, Blossom Dearie, Judy Garland, Eydie Gorme, Billie Holiday, Al Jolson, Frankie Laine, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Carmen McRae, Helen Merrill, Wayne Newton, Dinah Shore, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Mel Tormé, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, y Andy Williams. Por otra parte, artistas de otros géneros también han tenido éxito con sus versiones del Great American Songbook, como Rod Stewart quien, con cinco volúmenes de estándares norteamericanos, y cuatro millones de discos vendidos de cada uno, consiguió su primer Premio Grammy y su primer número uno en EEUU desde 1979.^[6]

Véase también

• Estándar de jazz
• Lounge music
• Tin Pan Alley

Referencias

Bibliografía

• Furia, Philip (1992). Poets of Tin Pan Alley. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507473-4. 

• Wilder, Alec (1990). American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-501445-6. 

• Bloom, Ken (2005). The American Songbook: The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs. New York: Black Dog & Levental Publishers. ISBN 1-57912-448-8. 

Enlaces externos

• PBS Special on Great American Songbook
• The Society for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook
• Popular Songwriters and The Great American Songbook
• Michael Feinstein Foundation for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook
• Rod Stewart.com