More in ‘Frank Sinatra’

“The two holidays that celebrate the divinity of Christ—the divinity that’s the very heart of the Jewish rejection of Christianity—and what does Irving Berlin do? He de-Christs them both! Easter he turns into a fashion show and Christmas into a holiday about snow.” Philip Roth, in Operation Shylock, was referring to Berlin’s “Easter Parade” and, ...

It’s astonishing how many hits from the American songbook—the corpus of music written from the 1920s to the 1960s that includes Broadway hits, Tin Pan Alley tunes, and Hollywood musicals—were written by Jews. These Jewish composers and lyricists included heavy hitters like Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the Gershwins, plus perhaps lesser known figures ...

A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, published this month by Nextbook Press, is an appreciation of the national songbook as the work of Jewish composers and lyricists. Author David Lehman picked his top ten favorite standards for Tablet Magazine. Here’s his playlist:
“The Lady is a Tramp,” music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart. ...