A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs

by David Lehman

In A Fine Romance, David Lehman looks at the formation of the American songbook—the timeless numbers that became jazz standards, iconic love songs, and sound tracks to famous movies—and explores the extraordinary fact that this songbook was written almost exclusively by Jews.

An acclaimed poet, editor, and cultural critic, David Lehman hears America singing—with a Yiddish accent. He guides us through America in the golden age of song, when “Embraceable You,” “White Christmas,” “Easter Parade,” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” “My Romance,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Stormy Weather,” and countless others became nothing less than the American sound track. The stories behind these songs, the shows from which many of them came, and the shows from which many of them came, and the composers and lyricists who wrote them give voice to a specifically American saga of love, longing, assimilation, and transformation.

Lehman’s analytical skills, wit, and exuberance infuse this book with an energy and a tone like no at once sharply observant, personally searching, and attuned to the songs that all of us love. He helps us understand how natural it should be that Wizard of Oz composer Harold Arlen was the son of a cantor who incorporated “Over the Rainbow” into his Sabbath liturgy, and why Cole Porter—the rare non-Jew in this pantheon of musicians who wrote these classic songs shaped America even as America was shaping them.

(Part of the Jewish Encounter series)

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

David Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.

Reviews

[mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Until the halfway point of this book, despite glossing over whole pages except for the song-title name-dropping, I was prepared to be charitable with a three-star review. But as with so many who celebrate the era of the jazz standard, he moves on to complete denigration of everything that came after.

He happily quotes someone who says Elvis was music for ten-year-olds, just a notch above nursery rhymes, a byproduct of a culture when music had been so commoditized that children could afford to buy it.

In short, music went to hell in a handbasket once the masses could choose what they wanted. It's an outrageously elitist viewpoint and I threw the book down when I read it.

I adore the standards. I've got plenty of records and CDs by the very artists that the author cites. Unlike the author, though, I do see value in the Beatles and much that came after it. I continue to seek out and buy music, much of it by singing budgies.

If that makes me part of the hoi polloi, so be it. I wouldn't want to be in Lehman's clique anyhow.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! The author's love for the Great American Songbook, which was created largely by Jewish immigrants and their children, shines through in virtually every sentence. This is not a an abstract scholarly work; it is personal story, full of passion and the kind of insights that come only to one who truly loves the subject matter with all of her/his heart.

And what a tale, of assimilation and ambiguity and wit and urbanity and art and extraordinary talent.

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This music history covers the period of the early 1900s until the 1960s when musicals were replaced by rock and roll music. The main difference is that singer/songwriters became popular, while musical composers usually had one person that wrote the lyrics, one that wrote the music and then a singer/actor was hired to perform in the stage version. The majority of the composers were Jewish and the authors believes that the Hebrew niggun (which is chant to begin praying) influenced their compositions.

I had just read a biography of the Jewish composer Irving Berlin and recently seen the film Blue Moon (2025) starring Ethan Hawke as legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart, focusing on a single night in 1943 at Sardi's restaurant as his partnership with Richard Rodgers- so I was already familiar with some of the composers. The book includes stories about Berlin, Hart, Rogers and Hammerstein, Gershwin, Kerne, and Sondheim. It’s interesting if you are into music history, but if you are a metal head or like hip hop it’s probably not your cup of tea.

[andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very curious book. The style in which Lehman discusses the plethora of Jewish songwriters in the golden age of popular music of the early 20th century is to put it kindly conversational and more bluntly a rambling jumble (redundant?). It's a mix of anecdotes, digressions, and uninteresting autobiographical material. That's not to say there aren't interesting sections about the backgrounds and careers of such composers and lyricists as Arlen, Kern, Hammerstein, Gershwin, Rodgers and more. The theories as to why a Jewish upbringing and culture enabled such genius seems to me a point that is stretched at times but I don't have the musical background to judge that adequately. I do know that the whole experience is improved greatly by having Youtube at your fingertips as you read, as it enables one to listen to the author's suggestions of particularly good performances of classic songs.

[Balloon Bruce · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it.

[Mitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

On page 115 of this book, David Lehman writes, ' I will write up my love of American popular song and its Jewish creators and I will write it straight, leaving myself out of it.' If only he did!

By this point in the book we are accosted by fictional interviews with the great song and lyric writers, inconsequential autobiographical anectdotes as well as cringe-inducing flights of fancy such as his imagining Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern as his uncles Harry and Jerry at his childhood synagogue.

Perhaps he feels that his background as poet and poetry editor gives him the right to create complete sentence made up of lyrics of the great songs. In one extreme instance he creates a 'cento' based on these lyrics.

Tedious and very little insight into the songbook, being Jewish or anything else besides being David Lehman

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read about the classics, what the author calls Broadway's golden age. Sort of wish he'd kept going and talked about Sondheim, but I understand how that doesn't really fit into his arc. Yaaaay Jews.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This tries to be too many different things--from personal memoir to the
history of Jewish influence on American popular music from Old Testament
times to Bob Dylan. Sometimes interesting, sometimes just a catalog of
what you could look up more easily by googling. Nice try though.

[Lawrence Epstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a great book. You can hear the songs as you read. David Lehman is not just filled with knowledge, not just a wonderful writer, but a true fan. His love of the material comes through on every page.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mix of personal history and the songs and their writers.

[Dorianne Laux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great so far. Takes me back to the songs of my childhood.