Warren Barker's Tin Pan Alley

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Warren Barker’s medley features fourteen songs written by the influential and prolific American songwriter, Irving Berlin. Berlin, born Israel Baline, was born in Tyumen, Russia in 1888. In 1893, in order to escape religious persecution, Baline and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in the Lower East Side (Crawford & Hamberlin, 2013). At age thirteen, as a means to support his family, Baline worked as a street singer. Eventually, by 1906, Baline was hired as a singing waiter at the Pelham Café in Chinatown. It was there that Baline wrote Marie of Sunny Italy. The popular song was picked up by publisher and thanks to an error on the sheet music’s cover, Baline was crediting as I. Berlin. With his new name in tow, Berlin began his meteoric rise to become Tin Pan Alley’s most successful songwriter.
Tin Pan Alley was the name given to a group of New York City songwriters and music publishers who dominated the American popular music scene in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Although the origin of the name is unclear, it is believed to reflect the industry’s new approach to music …show more content…

As Holden (1987) stated, “the composer's best-known songs seem indivisible from the country's history and self-image” (para. 4). Berlin’s lack of a musical signature enabled him to absorb a variety of American musical styles and sounds, thus allowing him to create a stylistically diverse repertoire. Barker’s medley includes the following Irving Berlin hits: Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Always, Blue Skies, Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly, Easter Parade, God Bless America, A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, Say It With Music, Steppin’ Out With My Baby, There’s No Buisiness Like Show Buisiness, This Is The Army, Mr. Jones, When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam’, White Christmas, and You’re Just In

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