Singers and the Song

by Graham Lees and Gene Lees

Book Overview

Led by Frank Sinatra, the generation that emerged during and after World War II raised the performance of the popular song to the level of art. Gene Lees' fascinating book examines some of the most gifted of these singers, including Sinatra, Dick Haymes, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford, and Sarah Vaughan.
Far from being the simple intuitive performers the public thought it knew, these people emerge--in Singers and the Song--as intelligent, skillful, and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195060873
• ISBN13: 9780195060874
• Release Date: November 1989
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Best Ever

I was simply overwhelmed by the sweep and depth of this book. It is much more than a collection of essays about Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mercer, Peggy Lee et al. It is a brilliantly written history of the great days of Amerian popular music -- circa 1935-1950 -- with side excursions into etymology, culture, the art of songwriting, geography, sociology, linguistics and, above all, musicality. Lees, himself a fine lyricist, shows and tells how it's done, who did it, where they succeeded and where they failed, and what finally happened to the era of American musicianship at its best. For those with the slightest interest in popular music, this book is a treasure.