Berlin, Irving

Berlin, Irving (1888–1989), songwriter and music publisher.Born Israel Baline in Temun, Siberia, Berlin moved with his family to New York City when he was four; he began his music career at sixteen as a singing waiter. His first hit tune, “Marie from Sunny Italy” (1907), written to compete with a rival bar, set him on a career path wherein art and commerce were inextricably linked. His “Alexander's Ragtime Band” (1911) helped transform ragtime into a national craze and enabled him to start his own publishing company. In the 1920s, he built and operated his own theater. His shows Yip, Yip Yaphank (1918) and This Is the Army (1942), and the song “God Bless America” (1938) boosted American morale and patriotism during the two world wars; some even suggested that “God Bless America” replace the “Star‐Spangled Banner” as the national anthem.

Berlin's hit songs like All Alone (1942), Heat Wave (1933), White Christmas (1942), and There's No Business Like Show Business (1946) drew upon diverse strands in American music, including various ethnic styles and jazz and swing rhythms, as well as European‐influenced harmonies. His folklike simplicity in melody and straightforward language articulated deeply held myths and beliefs, making him the epitome of the Tin Pan Alley composer of the first half of the twentieth century. His determination to control completely the production and distribution of his artistic output was widely emulated in the popular‐music industry.
See also Music: Popular Music.

Bibliography

Alec Wilder , Irving Berlin, in American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900–1950, ed. James T. Maher, 1972, pp. 91–120.
Lawrence Bergreen , As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin, 1990.

Timothy E. Scheurer