A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs »

DAVID LEHMAN is the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry, the series editor of The Best American Poetry, and the author of seven books of poems, most recently When a Woman Loves a Man. He lives in New York City.

In A Fine Romance, David Lehman looks at the formation of the American songbook—the timeless numbers that became jazz standards, iconic love songs, and sound tracks to famous movies—and explores the extraordinary fact that this songbook was written almost exclusively by Jews.

An acclaimed poet, editor, and cultural critic, David Lehman hears America singing—with a Yiddish accent. He guides us through America in the golden age of song, when “Embraceable You,” “White Christmas,” “Easter Parade,” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” “My Romance,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Stormy Weather,” and countless others became nothing less than the American sound track. The stories behind these songs, the shows from which many of them came, and the shows from which many of them came, and the composers and lyricists who wrote them give voice to a specifically American saga of love, longing, assimilation, and transformation.

Lehman’s analytical skills, wit, and exuberance infuse this book with an energy and a tone like no other: at once sharply observant, personally searching, and attuned to the songs that all of us love. He helps us understand how natural it should be that Wizard of Oz composer Harold Arlen was the son of a cantor who incorporated “Over the Rainbow” into his Sabbath liturgy, and why Cole Porter—the rare non-Jew in this pantheon of musicians who wrote these classic songs shaped America even as America was shaping them.

The Barnes & Noble Review

"Anyone who doubts that there is a distinctively Jewish character to, say, Gershwin's music or Berlin's or Harold Arlen's should listen to 'Someone to Watch Over Me'...and 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' ...and 'Stormy Weather.'...It's there in the plaintive undertow, the feeling that yearning is eternal and sorrow not very far from the moment's joy," writes David Lehman in this touching and thought-provoking book, about how almost all of the great American songs (made famous by such non-Jews as Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra) were written by Jews. He helps us understand how natural it should be that The Wizard of Oz composer Harold Arlen was the son of a cantor who incorporated "Over the Rainbow" into his Sabbath liturgy.

But not everyone liked their efforts, Lehman tells us. "Virgil Thomson, the composer and music critic for the New York Herald Tribune, dismissed George Gershwin's music for Porgy and Bess as 'gefilitefish scoring.' Whether you you regard the comment as a slur or just a colorful way to register a criticism, it makes it plain that Thomson's educated ear picked up the synagogue rather than the indigenous Gullah sound of Charleston..." Lehman is the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry, the series editor of The Best American Poetry, and the author of seven books of poems, including When a Woman Loves a Man. He obviously loves Jewish music (as my mother used to say, "What's not to like?") and includes this telling footnote: "To me," said Lenny Bruce, "if you live in New York or any other big city, you are Jewish..." --Dick Adler