Great American Songbook

Great American Songbook
Name	Great American Songbook
Genre	Popular song, jazz standard, Broadway musical theater
Cultural origins	Early 20th century United States

Great American Songbook The Great American Songbook denotes a canon of influential 20th‑century American popular songs, Broadway theater numbers, and jazz standards associated with composers and lyricists of Tin Pan Alley, Hollywood, and the Broadway stage. Its repertoire has been performed and recorded by prominent vocalists, instrumentalists, and ensembles across the United States and internationally, shaping interpretations in jazz and popular culture through the 20th and 21st centuries.

Origins and definition

Origins trace to the late 19th and early 20th centuries in centers such as New York City, Tin Pan Alley, and Hollywood, with early influences including vaudeville, ragtime, and operetta. Key institutions and venues that fostered the repertoire include Broadway (Manhattan), the Ziegfeld Follies, Carnegie Hall, and the Metropolitan Opera House, while publishing houses like Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Irving Berlin Music Corporation, and Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. disseminated material. The term emerged in mid‑20th‑century criticism and scholarship connected to record labels and radio networks such as Columbia Records, RCA Victor, Decca Records, NBC, and CBS, as artists from Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald popularized the body of work through studio albums and live performance.

Major composers and lyricists

Composer–lyricist teams and individual songsmiths of the repertoire include prolific figures from Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. Composers and arrangers: George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin (lyricist), Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart (lyricist), Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Duke Ellington, Kurt Weill, Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren, Ralph Rainger, Nacio Herb Brown, Vernon Duke, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert, Ray Noble, Ferde Grofé, Jimmy McHugh, Fred Astaire (composer/performer), and Hoagy Carmichael. Lyricists and collaborators: Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Hart, Johnny Mercer, Yip Harburg, E. Y. "Yip" Harburg, Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown, Dorothy Fields, Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Cole Porter (lyricist/composer), Irving Caesar, Sammy Cahn, Arthur Freed, and Sammy Fain. Arrangers and orchestrators tied to the repertoire include Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Billy May, Quincy Jones, Count Basie (arranger/bandleader), and Billy Strayhorn.

Notable songs and standards

Representative songs that have entered the repertory across recordings and revivals include "Summertime", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Night and Day", "My Funny Valentine", "Georgia on My Mind", "Stormy Weather", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Blue Skies", "Embraceable You", "All the Things You Are", "I Got Rhythm", "Mack the Knife", "It Had to Be You", "As Time Goes By", "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Sometimes I'm Happy" / "Sometimes I'm Blue", "They Can't Take That Away from Me", "New York, New York", "Fly Me to the Moon", "I Can't Get Started", "Night and Day", "I'll Be Seeing You", "Stardust", "Over the Rainbow", "Begin the Beguine", "Let's Face the Music and Dance", "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To", "On the Sunny Side of the Street", "I'll Never Smile Again", "Where or When", "You Do Something to Me", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Too Marvelous for Words", "That's Entertainment!", "They All Laughed", "All of Me", "Puttin' On the Ritz", "The Man I Love", "Cheek to Cheek", "Lady Be Good", "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)", "If I Loved You", "September Song", "More Than You Know".

Performance traditions and interpretations

Performance traditions range from solo vocal interpretations to big‑band arrangements, theater productions, cabaret shows, and small jazz combos. Iconic interpreters include Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Etta James, Mel Tormé, Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Michael Feinstein, Burt Bacharach (performer/composer), and Sting (interpretive albums). Big‑band and orchestral exponents include Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Les Paul (guitar innovator), and arrangers such as Nelson Riddle and Gordon Jenkins. Interpretive practices emphasize phrasing, rubato, reharmonization by Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and use of studio techniques by producers at Capitol Records and Columbia Records.

Influence on jazz, popular music, and Broadway

The repertoire provided harmonic and melodic material for improvisation and arrangement central to jazz development with contributions from Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and Thelonious Monk. Broadway composers and lyricists such as Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephen Schwartz, and Jonathan Larson drew on theatrical traditions established by Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein II. Popular music artists including The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Frank Zappa, and Tom Waits have referenced, covered, or been influenced by standards. Film composers and Hollywood studios—MGM, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox—used songs from the repertoire in musicals and scores, shaping award recognition at the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Tony Awards.

Preservation, revival, and modern adaptations

Preservation efforts and revivals have been led by archivists, musicologists, and institutions including Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and record reissue labels like Blue Note Records, Verve Records, and Concord Records. Revivalists and interpreters include Michael Feinstein, Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr., Rebecca Kilgore, Katie Melua, Norah Jones, Kurt Elling, Tony Bennett with Lady Gaga, and producers such as Phil Ramone and George Martin who have overseen thematic albums. Educational programs and performing series at Carnegie Hall, Apollo Theater, Sydney Opera House, and university curricula at Berklee College of Music and Manhattan School of Music promote scholarship and performance. Cross‑genre adaptations appear in contemporary recordings, films, television series, and sample‑based productions by artists working in hip hop and electronic music, while tribute concerts and festival stages like Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Glastonbury Festival sustain public interest.

Category:American music