THE B SIDE: THE DEATH OF TIN PAN ALLEY AND THE REBIRTH OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SONG By Ben Yagoda


Ben Yagoda’s history of popular music in the Unified States from 1885 to 1968 features a huge cast of characters: George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II, and a dozen more. Music started to change in the 1950s and morphed into Rock & Roll. I was surprised by Yagoda’s discussion of Carolyn Leigh, the writer of “Young at Heart,” which became a huge hit when Frank Sinatra sang it. The song was sold for $15,000 giving Warner Records “unlimited usage” to the song which went on to sell 350,000 copies that year. After all the “deductions,” Carolyn Leigh’s check was only $3,500. That’s the way the music business worked back in the Fifties.

Yagoda surprised me again during his story of Burt Bacharach’s development as a hit song generator. Bacharach hired a backup singer, Dionne Warrick. He fell in love with her voice and her “special kind of grace and elegance.” (p.251). In 1962, she recorded “Don’t Make Me Over.” But when the record was released, the name on the label was misspelled “Warwick.” Dionne Warrick adopted the new spelling and became “Dionne Warwick.” I never knew that.

If you’re a fan of music of the first two-thirds of the the 20th Century, you’ll find The B Side a delight! I want to drop everything and listen to The Great American Songbook! Are you a fan of this music? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Prologue: Premises, Premises 1
I Mr. Miller and Mr. Schwartz, 1954 13
II I Get a Kick out of You, 1885-1933 31
III Jukebox Saturday Night, 1925-1942 59
IV As Time Goes By, 1941-1948 87
V What Happened to the Music? 1946-1954 111
VI Brill Building Boys, and Girl, 1950-1955 149
VII The Big Beat, 1951-1968 175
VIII Fly Me to the Moon, 1939-1965 221
Epilogue: Do You Believe in Magic? 1957-1965 241
Acknowledgments 265
Notes 267
Books Cited 286
Index 292

16 thoughts on “THE B SIDE: THE DEATH OF TIN PAN ALLEY AND THE REBIRTH OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SONG By Ben Yagoda

  1. Deb

    Adding this book to my tbr right now! How can you not love the Great American Songbook and all the music that came out of the Brill Building? Great stuff—but Carol Leigh’s story is, I’m sure, fairly representative of the financial shenanigans that many of the artists & songwriters of those days were the victim of.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Deb, great women songwriters didn’t get the compensation they deserved for their work. The record companies bought the rights to songs so they wouldn’t have to pay royalties. So unfair!

      Reply
  2. Jeff Meyerson

    Yes, of course. I knew that Dionne Warwick once added an “e” to the end of her last name as the suggestion of her astrologer, but later changed it back. I never heard the other name story. I read Stephen Sondheim’s books about his favorite composers and I’m sure this is just as interesting.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, Ben Yagoda provides dozens of stories about the songwriters, the singers, and the record producers who made all that wonderful music. THE B SIDE is a delight!

      Reply
  3. Fred Blosser

    George, the book ALWAYS MAGIC IN THE AIR, from a few years ago, is a must-read if you’re interested in this subject — a wonderful, detailed history of Bachrach, Doc Pomus, King & Goffin, Neil Diamond, and the other songwriters who worked out of the Brill Building in the early 1960.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Fred, I have a copy of ALWAYS MAGIC IN THE AIR around here somewhere. I need to find it and read it, pronto! Thanks for the heads up!

      Reply
  4. wolf

    The Brill Building story is one of my favourites, especially Carole King and her songs.

    Totally (?) OT:
    My sister from Munich and her husband just visited us and somehow on the only music tv channel we have here in Hungary (there must be more but you pay extra) King was singing .
    My sister said: My favourite singer! I hadnT known that -but I remember buying Tapestry immediatel after it was available in Germany.
    In those days every evening I would go to a rcord shop…

    Reply
      1. Jeff Meyerson

        We saw BEAUTIFUL on Broadway. I think Melissa Benoist (SUPERGIRL) is starring in it now. Good show, great music.

  5. Steve Oerkfitz

    Some of this might be of interest to me. The Brill building stuff for example, but I could care less about Rodgers and Hammerstein and Rodgers and Hart. Not a fan of Broadway showtunes.
    A lot of artists got ripped off in the 50’s. Selling away their publishing rights. There is a law firm in NY I believe that specializes in getting back money for blues and R & B artists.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Steve, you could just read Chapters VI, VII, VIII, and the Epilogue for the material you’re interested in. And, if you’re like me, you’ll want to listen to some of the music from those years again!

      Reply

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