The Story Behind the Song: 150 Songs that Chronicle the 20th Century Review

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(More customer reviews)For several weeks I kept "The Story Behind the Song" on the corner of my desk, turning to it intermittently when I sought information on the background of a particular composition. That's one way to enjoy this book. A better way is to approach it less as a reference volume and more as the concise and fascinating history of 20th-century moods and popular music that it is.
The book is organized by decades. Each chapter includes a two- to three-page overview of that decade along with accounts of 15 of the decade's best known songs. The accounts cover expected topics such as composers' inspirations, key performers and recordings, and current availability of the songs in printed form. But the authors have gone beyond mere reporting in the way they've woven these and other factors into brief, well crafted essay portraits of the various periods.
A good example can be seen in the way the composition "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" speaks for a particular moment in America's past. In telling the story behind this song authors Barnet, Nemerov, and Taylor convey (in just four paragraphs) both the optimistic mood of the county in early 1929, before the October stock market crash, and the personal cynicism of blues artist Bessie Smith. When she recorded "Nobody Knows You..." on May 15, 1929, she was telling the story of her own world weary stardom in a song that became her signature, the authors state, even as it "prophetically declared the end of good times."
The range of songs chosen for inclusion in each chapter is as surprising as the individual song accounts. In the 1940s, for instance, compositions as different as "In the Mood," "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer," and "Some Enchanted Evening" are juxtaposed. The chapter on music of the 80s includes Paul Winter's "River Run" next to the "Miami Vice Theme." Yet in both the 40s and the 80s the overview addresses societal themes broad enough to allow for and even explain such differences. This is true of the other decades as well.
If I were an aspiring popular musician, I would rush to avail myself of the bibliography and the web site and research center listings at the end of this book. For the rest of us, the tune-loving public, it's a treat to encounter clear accounts of how some of the 20th centuries best loved songs came into being.

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