Discovering great singers of classic pop

by Roy Hemming

Much has been written about the great songwriters of classic pop--Berlin, Porter, Gershwin, and Sondheim, for instance--but what about the singers who made the music so famous? According to Roy Hemming and David Hajdu, "It is the singers who have given classic pop its life--a life that goes beyond the notes and words on the sheet music. The singer's life infuses the life he or she gives the song and, in turn, the way the song touches on the life of each listener." This Unique and passionately felt point-of-view distinguishes this entertaining sourcebook on American popular music from all others. By exploring the fascinating lives of the singers who created classic pop, we come to understand their influence on the development of one of the most enduring music forms of our century, and its substantial role in America's cultural history from the 1920 to the present day. To give us this inside view of classic pop, the authors have divided Their book into two parts: the first describes the