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List Price: $24.98Amazon.com's Price: $21.99 You Save: $2.99 (12%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790776217
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0790776219
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 22, 2003
Running Time: 175 minutes
Sales Rank: 9815
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The people and events that put the music in our lives are celebrated in this lively anthology hosted (and featuring vocals) by Michael Feinstein that traces popular music from its roots in ballads and minstrel shows through the jazz age big bands Broadway and Hollywood. Delight as Fats Waller boogies George Gershwin invents a musical rhapsody Arthur Freed becomes the wizard of oohs and aahs and biopics like 'Three Little Words' (Boop-boop-bedoo!) bring lives of famous tunesmiths to the screen. Among some rare performance footage Bessie Smith sings the blues Hoagy Carmichael is touched by 'Stardust' Fred and Ginger dance the Depression away and Judy pines for the place beyond the rainbow. It all adds up to one very special musical treat!Running Time: 175 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC: 085393738525
Amazon.com:
The Great American Songbook is an ambitious documentary that chronicles 100 years of American popular song through film clips and photographs. It stretches from minstrel shows to Elvis, but features most prominently the 'Golden Age' songwriters of the 1930s through the 1950s--Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Richard Rodgers with both Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein, and others. That means you can enjoy some of the most exquisite music of the 20th century including Paul Robeson singing 'Old Man River,' Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing 'Cheek to Cheek,' and Judy Garland's 'The Man That Got Away,' plus performances of historical importance such as Al Jolson's 'Swanee.'
Over the course of its three hours (it was cut for PBS broadcast), the program has some drawbacks--performers are identified but films aren't, the performances tend to be almost complete rather than complete, and scenes from fictional films illustrate the earliest historical moments, which doesn't feel true--but they're minor, and Michael Feinstein proves a perfect host, narrating and occasionally singing at the piano. Fans of Feinstein's cabaret shows will also enjoy his commentary track, which provides a lot of interesting and funny background on the songs and songwriters. His commentary isn't constant, but a useful icon allows the viewer to find the next section of commentary with the click of a button. Another slight inconvenience is that chapters are named by subject matter rather than by song title so if you're skimming for highlights you have to know what you're looking for. --David Horiuchi
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Superb Effort with Minor Flaws
This film accomplished exactly what it was meant to -- it made me want to learn more about these intensely talented songwriters. Michael Feinstein is a very capable guide. You never get the feeling that these songs represent old-timey "kitsch" to him. He respects the music, and in turn, he infuses our viewing experience with that same respect. My only complaint is that we are never told what movies these songs appeared in. We learn in Feinstein's commentary that he and his co-producer felt that the ... Read More
Rating: - Great american music
What a fantastic DVD. So many great songs, so many great singers, bands, etc. from 1776 to 1950. What a glorious collection!!!
Rating:  - Get a New Host!
America can claim very little things for itself. Because of immigration, many of the things we claim as our own is truly the product of other nations. However, we have jazz, and can claim the bouncy music as our own. This documentary showcases jazz and the music that came before and after, concentrating on the era between the influx of immigration and the advent of rock and roll. We learn about well known composers like George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rogers and Hart, as well as lesser remembered ... Read More
Rating: - I LOVED this!
I smiled all the way through it, and who couldn't use a little more of that these days? The nostalgia was warm, breath-taking, a slice of Americana as it once was. We will never see those days again. True, every chapter of history has its corruption and ne'er do wells, but this was the idealism and art and culture that could have made America great - if only.
But forget about if-only for the few hours that it takes to get lost in the rhapsody and pageantry and the history of American music. For ... Read More
Rating: - The Great American Songbook
If you like music you will love The Great American Songbook. It is the history of American popular music in MUSIC!!
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