Böcker av James Kaplan

A fast-moving, musically astute portrait of arguably the greatest composer of American popular music. Irving Berlin (1888-1989) has been called-by George Gershwin, among others-the greatest songwriter of the golden age of the American popular song. "Berlin has no place in American music," legendary composer Jerome Kern wrote; "he is American music." In a career that spanned an astonishing nine decades, Berlin wrote some fifteen hundred tunes, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "God Bless America," and "White Christmas." From ragtime to the rock era, Berlin's work has endured in the very fiber of American national identity. Exploring the intertwining of Berlin's life with the life of New York City, noted biographer James Kaplan offers a visceral narrative of Berlin as self-made man and witty, wily, tough Jewish immigrant. This fast-paced, musically opinionated biography uncovers Berlin's unique brilliance as a composer of music and lyrics. Masterfully written and psychologically penetrating, Kaplan's book underscores Berlin's continued relevance in American popular culture.

'At last, Sinatra has the biography he deserves' - The Irish TimesFrank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of his century - infinitely charismatic, more legendary and notorious than any other public personality of his era. But no matter what you think, you don't know him.In this critically acclaimed biography, James Kaplan reveals how Sinatra made listening to pop music a more personal experience than it had ever been. We relive the years 1915 to 1954 in vibrant detail, experiencing as if for the first time Sinatra's journey from the streets of Hoboken, his fall from the summit of celebrity, and his Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity. Here is the book that, finally, gets under his skin.