MARIE
IRVING
BERLIN
SONGWRITER: IRVING BERLIN
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: THE FAMOUS COMPOSITIONS
LABEL: CME
GENRE: VALSA
YEAR: 1937
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; Yiddish:
ישראל ביילין;
May 11, 1888– September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist, widely
considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms
a great part of the Great
American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russia,
Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first
song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the
publishing rights, and had his first major international hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band",
in 1911. He also was an owner of the Music
Box Theatre on Broadway.
It is commonly believed that Berlin could not read sheet music, and was such a
limited piano player that he could only play in the key of F-sharp using his
custom piano equipped with a transposing lever.
"Alexander's
Ragtime Band" sparked an international dance craze in places as far away
as Berlin's native Russia, which also "flung itself into the ragtime beat
with an abandon bordering on mania." Over the
years he was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular:
uncomplicated, simple and direct, with his stated aim being to "reach the
heart of the average American," whom he saw as the "real soul of the
country." In doing so, said Walter
Cronkite, at Berlin's 100th birthday tribute, he
"helped write the story of this country, capturing the best of who we are
and the dreams that shape our lives."
He
wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which made him famous before
he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an
estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 20 original Broadway shows and
15 original Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards.
Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band",
"Easter
Parade", "Puttin'
on the Ritz", "Cheek to Cheek",
"White
Christmas", "Happy
Holiday", "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)",
and "There's No Business Like Show Business".
His Broadway musical and 1943 film This
is the Army, with Ronald Reagan,
had Kate Smith singing Berlin's "God
Bless America" which was first performed
in 1938.
Berlin's songs have reached the top of the
charts 25 times and have been extensively re-recorded by numerous singers
including The
Andrews Sisters, Perry Como,
Eddie
Fisher, Al Jolson,
Fred Astaire,
Ethel Merman,
Louis Armstrong,
Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin,
Elvis Presley,
Judy Garland,
Barbra Streisand,
Linda Ronstadt,
Rosemary Clooney,
Cher, Diana Ross,
Bing Crosby,
Sarah Vaughan,
Ruth Etting,
Fanny Brice,
Marilyn Miller,
Rudy Vallée,
Nat King Cole,
Billie Holiday,
Doris Day,
Jerry Garcia,
Willie Nelson,
Bob Dylan,
Leonard Cohen,
Ella Fitzgerald,
Michael Buble,
Lady Gaga,
and Christina
Aguilera.
Berlin died in 1989 at the age of 101.
Composer Douglas Moore sets Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters, and
includes him instead with Stephen
Foster, Walt
Whitman, and Carl
Sandburg, as a "great American minstrel"—someone
who has "caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think
about, and what we believe." Composer George
Gershwin called him "the greatest
songwriter that has ever lived",:117 and composer Jerome Kern concluded that "Irving Berlin has no place in American music—he
is American music."
This waltz-time song was a hit for Rudy Vallée in 1929, and in 1937, updated to a four-quarter-time swing arrangement, was a top hit for Tommy Dorsey.
It was on the charts at no. 13 in 1953 for The
Four Tunes and at no. 15 for the Bachelors in 1965, 36 years after its first appearance
Marie, you'll soon be waking
To find, your heart is breaking
And tears, will fall, as you recall
The moon, in all its splendor,
The kiss, so very tender,
The words "will you surrender"
To me, my marie
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