500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics (Dover Song Collections) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 048629725X ISBN 13: 9780486297255

Publisher: Dover Publications, 1998

Synopsis

For anyone who loves to sing the great old songs, knows the melodies, but has trouble remembering some or all of the words, help is at hand in this extremely useful and unique compendium of popular song lyrics.
Included are the complete lyrics for 500 well-known songs from many sources: folk songs, hymns and spirituals, nursery songs and children's play songs, patriotic and military songs, popular songs (many from Tin Pan Alley and Broadway shows), and many more.
All the old favorites are here: After You've Gone, Beautiful Dreamer, Camptown Races, Danny Boy, Frankie and Johnny, Greensleeves, Home on the Range, I Love You Truly, John Henry, Kumbayah, Little Brown Jug, Molly Malone, Nobody Knows, Oh Susanna, Peg o' My Heart, Red River Valley, Shenandoah, Till We Meet Again, and hundreds more.
Carefully researched, attractively printed, and sturdily bound, 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics is the perfect companion for parties, sing-alongs, family get-togethers — anywhere people gather to sing and enjoy the great songs of yesteryear.

About this title

Review

"What are the words to that song?" is a common question, and trying hopelessly to remember a nagging, half-finished phrase can sometimes be enough to drive a person over the edge. It's a situation that 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics, collected and edited by Ronald Herder, attempts to rectify. From "The Aba Daba Honeymoon" (by Arthur Fields and Walter Donovan, 1914) to "Zum Gali Gali" (Israeli work song), it covers scads of folk songs, hymns, and old-time show tunes. In the case of songs with multiple versions, Herder has chosen, as he puts it in his introduction, "the text that is most memorable, that captures the spirit of the original song the way we remembered it, that is truly 'best-loved.'" However, if the lyrics you're trying to remember are from a tune along the lines of "Proud Mary" or the theme song from the Brady Bunch, you're out of luck: in keeping with Dover Publications' standard practice, all of the included words are out of copyright, and that means they must be over 50 years old. But for Christmas carols, patriotic songs (you'll find all four verses of "The Star-Spangled Banner"), folk music, and the kind of old-time popular songs that accompany vintage cartoons from Disney and Warner Bros., this is a very useful little collection. The index is in the front, and all the songs are arranged alphabetically. One caveat: although several songs in foreign languages are provided, translations are not. (So what does "Zum Gali Gali" mean, anyway? You'll have to seek the answer elsewhere.) --Sarah Bryan Miller

Edition details

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 048629725X
• ISBN 13: 9780486297255
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432
• Editor: Herder Ronald