Over the Rainbow; "Stormy Weather;" and "One for My Baby" are just a few of Harold Arlens well-loved compositions. Yet his name is hardly known--except to the musicians who venerate him. At a gathering of songwriters George Gershwin called him "the best of us." Irving Berlin agreed. Paul McCartney sent him a fan letter and became his publisher. Bob Dylan wrote of his fascination with Arlens "bittersweet; lonely world." A cantors son; Arlen believed his music was from a place outside himself; a place that also sent tragedy. When his wife became mentally ill and was institutionalized he turned to alcohol. It nearly killed him. But the beautiful songs kept coming: "Blues in the Night;" "My Shining Hour;" "Come Rain or Come Shine;" and "The Man That Got Away." Walter Rimler drew on interviews with friends and associates of Arlen and on newly available archives to write this intimate portrait of a genius whose work is a pillar of the Great American Songbook.
#2488210 in eBooks 2015-06-27 2015-06-27File Name: B0108ILI90
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