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Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; Yiddish: ישראל ביילין; [1] May 11, 1888 [2] – September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Berlin received numerous honors including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award.
- 1907–1971
- 4, including Mary Ellin Barrett
Sep 24, 1989 · NEW YORK — Irving Berlin, a Russian Jewish immigrant who never learned to read or write music and became the king of American songwriters with melodies that won the heart of his adopted country,...
Nov 18, 2018 · The Love Story of Irving and Dorothy Goetz Berlin. DATE. November 18, 2018. Blog. White Christmas and Happy Holidays are two of the most popular holiday songs of all time. Both were written by iconic composer Irving Berlin, who is widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. Indeed his music is at the foundation of the ...
Dec 24, 2019 · 'Irving Berlin: New York Genius' tells how the songwriting legend, born Israel Beilin in czarist Russia, started on the streets before penning the hit 'White Christmas'
- He Was Russian by Birth, Not German.
- After His Father Died, He Quit School and Began Singing on The Street.
- He Earned A Handful of Coins For His First Song.
- His Ragtime Song Inspired A Trendy Dance.
- “When I Lost You” Was About The Death of His New Wife.
- He Wrote Patriotic Songs in WWI and WWII.
- He Bought Transposing Pianos Due to His Lack of Musical Training.
- His Interfaith Marriage Generated Controversy.
- He Gave All Royalties For “God Bless America” to The Boy and Girl Scouts.
- He Composed Annie Get Your Gun After His Friend’S Sudden death.
Israel Isidore Baline was born May 11, 1888 in Mohilev, Russia. In the early 1890s, Berlin’s parents moved their family of eight (Israel, who was 5 at the time, was the youngest of six) from Russia to New York City’s Lower East Side to escape anti-Jewish pogroms. He went by Izzy in America in an attempt to assimilate, and when his first composition...
Berlin's father, Moses Baline, had been a cantor (one who leads prayer songs) in Russia, but had trouble finding steady work in America. He died of chronic bronchitis when Berlin was just 13. Though the young boy had already been selling newspapers to try to help his family make money, Berlin quit school and, in an attempt to lessen the financial b...
In 1907, Berlin sold the publishing rights to his first song to a music publisher for 75 cents. Because he co-wrote the song, called “Marie from Sunny Italy,” with a pianist, Berlin only received half (approximately 37 cents) of the payment for the piece.
Long before the Macarena or the Harlem Shake, Berlin’s song “Alexander's Ragtime Band” (1911) topped the charts and sold more than 1 million copies of sheet music. Although it wasn’t an authentic ragtime song, it inspired people across the world to hit the dance floor. Over the decades, different singers including Ray Charlesrecorded versions of th...
In 1912, Berlin married Dorothy Goetz, but his new wife caught typhoid fever on their honeymoon in Cuba and died five months later. He wrote his first ballad, “When I Lost You,” about the experience: “I lost the sunshine and roses / I lost the heavens of blue / I lost the beautiful rainbow… When I lost you.” The song sold more than 1 million copies...
In 1917, during World War I, the U.S. Army drafted Berlin to write patriotic songs. In order to raise funds for a community building on his Long Island army base, he wrote Yip! Yip! Yaphank!, a popular musical revueperformed by actual soldiers that later went to various theaters around New York. It included the popular song "Oh! How I Hate to Get U...
Despite Berlin’s incredible songwriting success, he was neither classically trained nor educated in music theory. He only knew how to play the piano in F sharp, so in order to write songs that didn’t all sound the same, he bought transposing keyboards. These special keyboards changed the key, allowing him to play the same notes but produce differen...
In 1925, Berlin met and fell in love with a Roman Catholic debutante named Ellin Mackay. Her father, a financier named Clarence Mackay, disapproved of Berlin because he was Jewish. The couple’s interfaith relationship attracted major press attention, and Mackay’s father reportedly disowned her when she married him in a secret ceremony in 1926. One ...
Although Berlin originally wrote “God Bless America” during WWI for Yip! Yip! Yaphank!, he didn’t use the song until 1938. Through its lyrics, Berlin expressed his gratitude to America for giving him everything, and “God Bless America” became an instantly recognizable, patriotic song. He decided that 100 percent of the song’s royalties would go to ...
In 1945, composer Jerome Kern (best known for Show Boat) started working on the score for a new Rodgers and Hammerstein-produced musical, Annie Get Your Gun. But when Kern died unexpectedly within a week of starting to write, Berlin took over scoring duties. Berlin’s music and lyrics for the musical, which included songs such as “There's No Busines...
- Suzanne Raga
Jul 25, 2006 · Irving Berlin. Irving Berlin was perhaps America's most beloved composers. Israel Beilin was born on May 11, 1888, in the western Siberian town of Tyumen, Russia. Called Izzy, he was the youngest of eight children of Moses Beilin, an itinerant cantor, and his wife, Leah. It was a dangerous time for Jews in his homeland.
"When I Lost You" is a song with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. It was written in 1912 after his wife of five months, the former Dorothy Goetz, died of typhoid fever. In it he poured out the grief of his loss; it was the only song that he ever admitted had such a connection to his own life.
