
Irving Berlin’s Music Box
Rebecca Kilgore
vocalsb.1949
The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on Sirius/XM satellite radio and can be streamed on-demand from the Riverwalk Jazz website. You can also drop in on a continuous stream of shows at the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound.

Irving Berlin
composer / conductor1888 - 1989
Berlin’s songs like “Easter Parade,” “God Bless America” and “White Christmas” have found a place in the pantheon of American anthems of popular song. His songs “Blue Skies,” “Cheek To Cheek” and “Puttin’ On the Ritz” continue to be performed and recorded today by artists of all flavors, from Willie Nelson to

Diana Krall
piano and vocalsb.1964

Jim Cullum Jr.
cornetb.1941
Irving Berlin compositions have endured so well, for so long, they seem destined to withstand the test of time forever. In the 1930s, trumpeter

Bunny Berigan
trumpet1908 - 1942

Bob Crosby
saxophone, alto1913 - 1993
Berlin’s knack for keeping his finger squarely on the pulse of mainstream American musical taste surfaced as early as 1911, when he composed his first mega-hit, ”Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Over the next fifty years, the song was recorded in a dozen hit versions by

Bing Crosby
vocals1903 - 1977

Louis Armstrong
trumpet and vocals1901 - 1971

Bessie Smith
vocals1894 - 1937

Connee Boswell
vocals1907 - 1976

Ray Charles
piano and vocals1930 - 2004
Berlin left to the world hundreds of catchy tunes to whistle and hum—and memorable lyrics to sing—for just about any occasion. But Irving Berlin was as much a natural businessman as he was a natural showman and songwriter. Dedicated to protecting the rights of artists, Berlin was co-founder of ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. And he built the Music Box Theater on 45th Street in Manhattan between Broadway and 8th Avenue. It opened in 1921 with his Music Box Revue and continues to be in use today as a venue for Broadway stage plays.
Throughout his life, there seemed to be an endless outpouring of music streaming from Irving Berlin to his appreciative public. The lyrics he penned to “What Can a Songwriter Say?” sum up his attitude toward songwriting:
What can a songwriter do?
I wish I could make an appropriate speech
But speech-making is simply out of my reach.
So what can a songwriter do,
What can a songwriter say,
A fiddler can speak with his fiddle,
A singer can sing with his voice.
An actor can speak with his tongue in his cheek
But a songwriter has no choice
Whatever his rights or wrongs
He only can speak with his songs.
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Radio
Jim Cullum Jr.
Don Mopsick
United States
Texas
San Antonio
Bob Barnard
Rebecca Kilgore
Irving Berlin
Diana Krall
Jim Cullum
Bunny Berigan
Bob Crosby
Bing Crosby,
Louis Armstrong
Bessie Smith
Connee Boswell
Ray Charles
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