AMERICAN POPULAR SONG: THE GREAT INNOVATORS 1900-1950 By Alec Wilder

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Jeff Meyerson mentioned that Stephen Sondheim evaluated other Broadway composers in Finishing the Hat so I checked it out. Sondheim respected Cole Porter, but noted that Porter was a “list-maker” and cited several song lyrics to prove his point.

That led me to Alec Wilder’s American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950 (1972). I’m a fan of Wilder’s songs, especially “I’ll Be Around.” Alec Wilder isn’t afraid of making song judgments. Just check out this critique of a Richard Rodgers classic:

“No, I don’t like Some Enchanted Evening. I find it pale and pompous and bland. Where, oh where, are all those lovely surprises, those leaps in the dark, those chances? I’m in church and it’s the wrong hymnal!” (p. 221)

Stephen Sondheim ranked Cole Porter at the top of his list of great Broadway composers. Alec Wilder has a different opinion:

“There is considerable irony in the fact that, though Cole Porter was the most thoroughly trained musician of all the writers discussed in this book, he is better known and more highly considered for his lyrics than his music. And there is no question but that his lyrics were high fashion, witty to a markedly sophisticated degree, turned out, often-times it seemed, for the special amusement of his social set. Yet they seldom risked or indulged in tenderness or vulnerability.” (p. 223)

Although you might think Wilder was being too critical of Porter, he does provide an insightful assessment: “For many years Porter had been suffering great pain from a shattered leg. It had been operated on countless times. His surgeon once told me that Porter’s pain must have been so excruciating as to cause virtual sleeplessness for years. Yet this anguished man managed not only to write good songs and witty lyrics, but, in 1948, to create possibly his most successful score, Kiss Me, Kate.” (p. 249)

Of all the song writers and composers in AMERICAN POPULAR SONG: THE GREAT INNOVATORS 1900-1950, Alec Wilder’s favorite is Harold Arlen. Wilder knew Arlen and spoke with him about their craft:

“Interestingly, when I discussed song writing with him, Arlen never spoke of hits, he talked only of good songs. My feeling was that he simply didn’t equate quality with sales.” (p. 254)

After reading Wilder’s chapter on Harold Arlen, I wanted to drop everything and listen to Arlen’s music!

Wilder sums up his survey of a half century of popular songs with these conclusions: “Overall, I find Rodgers warmer, Arlen more hip, Gershwin more direct, Vernon Durk more touchable, Berlin more practical. But no one can deny that Porter added a certain theatrical elegance, as well as interest and sophistication, wit, and musical complexity to the popular song form. And for this we are deeply indebted.” (p. 252)

If you’re interested in American popular songs from the first half of the Twentieth Century, Alec Wilder has a lot to say. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Author’s Note — xxi

Acknowledgements
Introduction by James T. Maher — xxiii
1. The Transition Era: 1885 to World War I — 3
2. Jerome Kern (1885-1945) — 29
3. Irving Berlin (1888-1989) — 91
4. George Gershwin (1898-1937) — 121
5. Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) — 163
6. Cole Porter (1891-1964) — 223
7. Harold Arlen (1905-1986) — 243
8. Vincent Youmans (1898-1946) and Arthur Schwartz (1900-1984) — 292
9. Burton Lane (1912- 1997), Hugh Martin (1914-2011), and Vernon Duke (1903-1969) — 331
10. The Great Craftsmen –370
Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981)
Walter Donaldson (1893-1947)
Harry Warren (1893-1981)
Isham Jones (1894-1956)
Jimmy McHugh (1894-1969)
Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
Fred Ahlert (1892-1953)
Richard Whiting (1891-1938)
Ray Noble (1907-1978)
John Green (1908-1989)
Rube Bloom (1902-1976)
Jimmy Van Heusen (1913-1990)
11. Outstanding Individual Songs: 1920 to 1950 — 452
12. Additional Songs and Composers — 521
Index –525

22 thoughts on “AMERICAN POPULAR SONG: THE GREAT INNOVATORS 1900-1950 By Alec Wilder”

  2. Michael Padgett

    I love a lot of this music but am not sufficiently knowledgeable about it to have much to say. By the time I was really paying close attention to music we were well into the 50s, and rock had taken over my attention. Anything I have to say about pre-050s music would be more concentrated on singers than songs. For me, The Singer was Sinatra.

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      1. Steve Oerkfitz

        I can’t think of Ella Fitzgerald without A Tisket a Tasket popping into my head. I hate it.

      2. Todd Mason

        Well, if you hate it for her performance, that’s one thing…if you hate it because it’s kind of a cloyingly-cute song, that she does what few can with but still doesn’t hide that, you should try her other work, assuming you haven’t done so much. She’s not the only singer of her caliber to work those decades, but there aren’t too many. Sinatra’s nonchalance about ruining songs he didn’t respect gets a bit tired.

  3. Jeff Meyerson

    Glad you found this. Yes, Porter wrote witty, sophisticated lyrics for his social set, but when you are as witty and sophisticated as he was, what’s wrong with that?

    The “I’ll Be Around” I really like is the one by The Spinners.

    Agree on Harold Arlen – start with Stormy Weather. Also Over the Rainbow and other WIZARD OF OZ songs, Blues in the Night, Come Rain or Come Shine, etc.

    Sounds like an interesting book.

    Reply ↓
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, I’m a fan of Alec Wilder’s music. Reading about these great composers evaluated by one of their own makes the whole experience deeper and more compelling. Wonderful music!

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  4. Steve Oerkfitz

    Some of these composers I like (Porter) and a few I’ve never heard of. Richard Rodgers I detest. All that saccharine showtune crap I hate such as Sound of Music.

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  5. Byron Bull

    I’m glad you reviewed this book and provided quotes. I’ve been aware of it for years but have never gotten around to reading it for fear that it might be dry and academic but it looks highly readable and is now on my list for this winter.

    I discovered Wilder’s music, not his songs but his instrumentals, a few years ago and was stunned by how smart, elegant and completely unique they are. It’s a form of chamber music that flits between classical, jazz and pop effortlessly and often features the harpsichord, of all instruments, in the lead. Frank Sinatra once heard it on his car radio and was so intrigued by it that he pulled his car off the road at a phone booth to call the radio station and find out who they were playing. He later recorded an album of Wilder’s music and even conducted the band.

    Sadly, I grew up after the heyday of this music but grew to love it nonetheless. I would have to agree with Wilder about Arlen, he’s the one whose songs I return to most often.

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    1. george Post author

      Byron, I need to listen to more of Alec Wilder’s chamber music. I have a handful of CDs by various singers who perform his songs. Sinatra sang some of Wilder’s songs, too. I have that Sinatra album of Wilder’s music on order. As much as I enjoy Cole Porter’s songs, I consider Arlen a deeper and more profound composer.

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      1. george Post author

        Todd, you and Alec Wilder are on the same page with regard to “Some Enchanted Evening.” It was popular back in the day.

      2. Todd Mason

        I heard it on “Middle Of the Road”/MOR radio stations my parents tuned to (as my father had a media crush on Mitzi Gaynor, he was Not Upset about the film of SOUTH PACIFIC), and then my Honolulu HS put it on as the school musical in my junior year. I hadn’t actually seen the dramatizations of the Michener stories till then, and the cop-out “tragedy” of the young airman’s demise stuck with me as as overblown as that song…I remember from my childhood performances of the song, I would have it run “You may meet a stranger/Who will be stranger than you”…cheerfully, I don’t remember any of my other lyrical improvisations on that song. But there were several others.

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