This series of Christmas songs by Jewish writers was first published in December 2021. THIS is the daddy of them all, Bing Crosby’s version being the biggest- selling record with all-time sales in excess of 50million. All the other versions take the figure well above 100million. Words and music were by Irving Berlin, one of […]
This series of Christmas songs by Jewish writers was first published in December 2021. THERE is a tragic story behind this one. Both the lyricist Richard B Smith and the composer Felix Bernard died young, before the song they wrote together became a major success. Dick Smith was born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1901, to […]
This series of Christmas songs by Jewish writers was first published in December 2021. MOST of the songs featured in this series were written by lyricists and composers working together. (I find this an incomprehensible process – does the tune come first, or the words, or both at the same time? – but it happens.) […]
In the run-up to Christmas we are repeating this series about Christmas songs by Jewish writers, which was first published in December 2021. THIS quintessential winter song was written by two greats, Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, in Hollywood on the hottest day of 1945. Cahn recalled: ‘I said to Jule Styne, “Why don’t we […]
In the run-up to Christmas we are repeating this series about Christmas songs by Jewish writers, which was first published in December 2021. THE writers of Silver Bells, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, were responsible for a number of songs now considered to be classics, and have been described as ‘the last of the great songwriters of Hollywood’, but their […]
In the run-up to Christmas we are repeating this series about Christmas songs by Jewish writers, which was first published in December 2021. A WHILE ago I wrote a series for TCW called The Melody Makers about the extraordinary and wonderful flowering of musical creativity among the Jewish population of New York, mainly immigrants from Europe, in the 20th century. […]
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