Blue Skies

Irving Berlin (1888–1989)

Gershwin described Irving Berlin as the greatest songwriter that has ever lived. Kern said, “He has no place in American music: he is American music.” Gary Giddens wrote, “No other songwriter has written as many anthems…no one has written as many pop songs, period.” I even came across an anthem he wrote called “Heaven Watch The Philippines”. It’s beautiful. Berlin also wrote an anthem for Israel in 1950, but I haven’t been able to find it. Of the first tier of Great American Songbook composers, only he, Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael wrote both words and music. All his songs were composed in F#, an “easy” key to play on piano, being mostly black keys. He didn’t believe in inspiration, but was said to write a song every day, from after dinner until 4 or 5 am, implying that for every hit he accomplished there were many, many hundreds of misses (or more). I know at some point, his attempts were all misses. I tried to determine what his last hit was, listening to all the songs from his last musical, Mr. President, which came out in 1962. All misses. His previous play, Call Me Madam (1950), had by my judge-y standards, three good songs––maybe the last good ones he ever wrote––“It’s A Lovely Day Today”, “You’re Just In Love” and “The Best Thing For You”. I’ve liked those since I first heard them, but never knew until now they were Berlin songs. He retired as a songwriter after Mr. President flopped, but wrote a last song, “Old Fashioned Wedding”, as an additional number in the 1966 revival of Annie Get Your Gun.

The first song he ever sold––for 75 cents––was “Marie From Sunny Italy”. His breakthrough hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, came out in 1912. In it, the band is referred to as, “The Best Band In The Land”. However, the best ragtime band in the land at that time was the Clef Club Orchestra, led by James Reese Europe. Europe and his musicians were some of the first Black musicians to record, and they were the second Black group to perform in formal wear (Ernest Hogan’s Memphis Students were the first), as opposed to the minstrel/clown outfits that White America insisted Blacks wear if they were going to perform music. Berlin and Europe were based in New York, they were certainly aware of each other. I’m inclined to believe the Clef Club Orchestra was the inspiration for “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”.

Berlin’s songwriting career went from 1908 to 1966––58 years in all––although it could be said his best-song period was 1912 to 1950, a 38-year span. It just occurred to me that I’ve been writing songs for 56 years, and Dylan has been doing so for 59. I don’t know what to say about that.