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The Big Town Songbook

The New York Daily News has a great music feature called the Big Town Songbook which "Celebrates New York's Musical Heritage". They have an archive on their web site of all the articles. The pieces are short but they cover an incredibly wide range of musical topics. I guarantee that as much as you think you know about music, you will learn something from this fine series of articles. They cover everything from depression era songs to the New York Dolls. Here is an index of each story in the series that will link straight to it's location on the Daily News web site. Make sure you pick up a copy of the Daily News the next time you are in New York, it's a great paper.

Waiting to sing: The Legacy of Doris Troy	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Slogging through hell: Depressive sorbidity, 1932	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Wonderful world: Blowing over Pops, 1971	By JAY MAEDER
Latent power Marian Anderson at Town Hall	By KAREN CHAPMAN
Some Time in New York City: John Lennon's Town	No byline
Masculine charms The Village People	By MARA BOVSUN
Teen spirit Frankie Lymon's Good Times	By DAVID HINCKLEY
True red Shostakovich trapped in New York, 1949	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
The way you're supposed to be The New York Dolls	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Somebody as rotten as you Jack Benny at Carnegie Hall, 1959	BY ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Bye bye blackbird Burying Florence Mills, 1927	By JAY MAEDER
Reindeer games Rudolph for Christmas	By MARA BOVSUN
Respecting the craft Tony Bennett wins the argument, 1986	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Wide open Getting a little tenderloin	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Adam Sandler writes a little festive something for you Jewish kiddies	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Over there again War returns to Tin Pan Alley, 1941	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Unspeakable things War Comes to Carnegie Hall, Dec. 1941	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Cutoff point The history of rap in the city, Part four of six	BY DAVID HINCKLEY
Message from the Bronx The history of rap in the city, Part three of six	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Power to the people The history of rap in the city, Part two of six	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Making the party jump The history of rap in the city	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Man out of time John Kirby	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Can't sit still Emergence of new urges, summer 1956	By JAY MAEDER
All mellow Getting together in a moment's sunlight, 1969	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Between homicides Leadbelly takes Manhattan, 1935	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Working the room Dean and Jerry and the Copa Crowd, 1948	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Love Boat Merry on the Ferry, 1939	By MIKE SANTANGELO
Eating dead burnt bodies Alice and Arlo and Thanksgiving at Carnegie Hall	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Back in town The transformation of MacHeath	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Change in plans Roxy's wondrous musical hall	By JAY MAEDER
Faint lavender The Jolson story	By JAY MAEDER
Not 100% Billy Joel salutes America, 2002	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Something about his voice The lost balladeer	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Knock on wood Jacksons at the Apollo, 1967	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Top of the world The Apollo	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Walk that way Massuh watches the fun and misses the point	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Mobile radio	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Social extermination Being seen at the opera, 1883	By KAREN CHAPMAN
Mother's Day Cissy Houston up top	BY DAVID HINCKLEY
Hole in the wall The crummiest shrine in the world	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Firestorm Incident at the Stork Club, 1951	By DAVID HINCKLEY
The presser Jimmy Walker goes into the record business, 1945	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
No Jolt Fried Neil	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Wonderbar Thirty-dollar Yiddish song	By PATRICK FENTON
The gift Concert in the park, 1983	By JAY MAEDER
Yes, I can do it' Roberta Peters Zings, 1950	By BRIAN KATES
The old song and dance Al and Ruby	By DAVID HINCKLEY
The honker King Curtis	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Deadly aim Sinatra at the Paramount, 1944	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Hit by lightning Incident at CCNY, 1991	By JAY MAEDER
No white gloves The Shangri-Las	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Scaling the mountain Dorothy Dandridge plays the Waldorf, 1955	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Swamp of opportunity Songwriters at the fair	BY ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Happy hour At ground level with Lovin' Dan	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Hot little number Rosalind Elias gets a tattoo, 1961	By BRIAN KATES
Living in America Black 47	By PATRICK FENTON
Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall, 1938	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Overnight sensation: "Make Mine Manhattan," 1948	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Marketing target, Teens and their zines	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Eclipsing the waltz Polite society discovers polka, 1844	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Good fellowship Radio City hails Leningrad, 1942	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Career move, The Sugar Ray Robinson Show	By BILL GALLO
Near future: Jimi's lady, 1970	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Cracking the code Billy Strayhorn	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Frantic, Harry the Hipster	By CHRIS ERIKSON
American soundtrack Tin Pan Alley goes to war, 1917	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Preserving zee complexion Flo and Anna and the 1907 Follies	BY JAY MAEDER
Tweet dreams (Part 2 of 2) Whistlers of the city: Fred Lowery	BY MARA BOVSUN
Tweet dreams	By MARA BOVSUN
Cautionary Tale Springsteen and Diallo	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Waiting for the gush Andrew Carnegie and the Philharmonic	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Definition of baseball When beer was beer and jingles were jingles	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Pop goes the little old music maker Mitch Miller and the public taste	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Campfire story The Yellow Rose of New York	No byline
A little movement in your sacroiliac Hucklebuckin' all night long	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Potential of Blues Black Swan	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Silenced drum Chano Pozo's last brawl	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Night flock The Rev. Gensel's Jazz Ministry	By BRIAN KATES
Anesthetizing the masses A Little Elevator Music	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Starlight and dewdrops Stephen Foster, Charity Patient	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Absence of clack The Philharmonic and the Riffraff	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Swell tunes an' everything: Ragtime Jimmy	By MARA BOVSUN
Best music from everywhere Skitch Henderson's New York Pops	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Freakish gust of wind Curtis Mayfield at Wingate Field, 1990	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Rhapsody in sort of blue George Gershwin goes to Hollywood	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Ground floor America's No. 1 recording artist, 1900-1920	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Center field Leonard Bernstein Conducting, November 1943	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Roar of the crowd Victor Herbert's Neighbors, 1912	By MARA BOVSUN
Play it again: Herman Hupfeld's Greatest Hits	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Unchained melodies A Little Sedition Music, 1734	By DAVID HINCKLEY
No blackout on music Philharmonic at war	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Looking at hell No Nukes, 1979	By DAVID HINCKLEY
True Confessions Irving Berlin and the Shiksa, 1926	By JAY MAEDER
Headliner Sam Cooke at the Copa, 1964	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Court and spark Boys and Girls Together Down at Coney Isle	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Hearts full as glasses Federal Song and Drink, 1788	By DAVID HINCKLEY
The Classicist and the Bobby Soxers, 1944	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Enjoyment in unemployment The Mayor of Central Park, 1933	By JAY MAEDER
Ruthless ambition The House That Nanette Built	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Hot wax trax The Billboard charts	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Not the next Ed Sullivan Howard Cosell Recaptures the Magic, 1975	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Anger and love Sing Out! and the folk argument	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Happy in her work Florence Foster Jenkins	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Garden of fans Down at Palisades Park, 1930s -1970s Part Two of Two	By DAVID HINCKLEY
O'er in Jersey Up To Palisades Park, 1890s-1930s Part One of Two	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Part of the land 'Skyscraper,' 1965	By MARA BOVSUN
A good concert room Building Philharmonic Hall, 1846	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Right to sing The Ballad of Washington Square, Spring 1961	By JAY MAEDER
Heartbreak songs The chanteuse that time forgot	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Self-portrait Bob Dylan invites himself	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Divinity Bette of the baths	By SHANTI GOLD
Bongs bursting in air The NBC Chimes	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Bundled with plot Carnegie Hall: The Movie	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Old violins Alberta Hunter	By JERE HESTER
On the mall Edwin Franko Goldman	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Truth in packaging Joe Franklin	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Laughing out loud Happiness and George W. Johnson	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Walking the walk The hotel with the hyphenated name	By MARA BOVSUN
Same old stand Pennsylvania 6-5000	By MIKE SANTANGELO
Proper young ladies	By DAVID HINCKLEY
The voices within Tiny Tim	By JAY MAEDER
Tidal wave Alan Freed and the Suburban Living Room	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Happy banjo tunes The Virginia Minstrels - Part 2 of 2	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Natural sense of rhythm Daddy Rice and the original Jim Crow	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Fighting the Pirates Gilbert and Sullivan in New York, 1879	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
The kid on the couch Phil Spector's New York	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Writing records Leiber and Stoller	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Ungodly Directions 100 Years of Fats Waller	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Everything can change New York minute, 9-11-01	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Wheels that hum The Magic Train of Dreams, 1961	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE
How good can it get The Rascals	By DAVID HINCKLEY
No sideways Living large at the opera	By BRIAN KATES
Peace and unity The American-Soviet Music Society	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Play-a de music When organ grinders ground	By MARA BOVSUN
Only game in town Rosalie Allen country	By DAVID HINCKLEY
The importance of keeping receipts A tale of two lost cellos	By BRIAN KATES
Turnover Switching Drifters, 1958	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Not ready for prime time Elvis Comes to Town, 1955	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Big talk The Day the Music Died, 1982	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Bump 'em right back Subway sonata, 1912	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Looking for an echo The Crests	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Not the soda fountain type Clay Cole's clean teens, 1960	By DAVID HINCKLEY
When New York wasn't ready for opera, 1833	By BRIAN KATES
Tasteful conclusion The Philharmonic's Lincoln Concert, 1865	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Hit parade The Jackie Robinson Song, 1949	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Reminder of excellence Fiorello's Pet Project	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Battlefront Witchcraft at the Opera, 1994	By BRIAN KATES
Big Town Songbook: Brothers Simon and Garfunkel and Goodman	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Being a Belmont The Guys Behind Dion	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Fatal pages Death at the Met, 1960	By BRIAN KATES
Brooklyn Kid The Alan Dale Story	By PATRICK FENTON
To get to the other side Jingling for jaywalkers	By MARA BOVSUN
Devil's own night A hick on the Bowery	By MIKE SANTANGELO
Must know somethin' Not an ordinary musical, 1927	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Something to join The Junkie Choir	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Proles on Broadway Orson Welles vs. Uncle Sam, 1937	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Somewhere in the night Billy May's New York	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Celebrated delineator Bert Williams in blackface	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Miracle of the canaries Toscanini	By JAY MAEDER
Stopping the white wash Rahsaan Roland Kirk on TV	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Too hip for the room Johnny Staccato	By JAY MAEDER
Resurrection Easter Parade	By MARA BOVSUN
Mysterious music lover Moondog	By BRIAN KATES
Moth to flame New Kid at the Bon Soir	By PATRICK FENTON
Concrete jungle Petulant moments in New York song	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Dynamite James Brown Live at the Apollo, 1962	By TIM ADAMS
Preaching to the choir Adam Clayton Powell on the Record, 1967	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Spirit of the music Dueling Klezmers	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Scientific broadcasting WQXR and how it got that way	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Voyage to Neverland Frohman at Sea, 1915	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Big New York jock thing Murray the K	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Begging for more Jackie Wilson leaves 'em panting	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Eagle from crag Durable Sousa	By DAVID HINCKLEY
New York Knick Peter Stuyvesant on Broadway, 1938	By MARA BOVSUN
Union label The ILGWU theme song	By MIKE SANTANGELO
Sunday melodies The W.E. Hill Report, 1941	No byline
Broader principles ASCAP Part 1 of 2	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Dancing after retirement Cohan Plays Roosevelt, 1937	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Whereever the Muses go The Philharmonic at the Roxy, 1950	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Coffee break Irving Berlin at the Automat, 1932	By MARA BOVSUN
Future of radio Martin Block makes believe	By DAVID HINCKLEY
When the ship comes in Downtown Man, Uptown Girl	By SHANTI GOLD
True love ways Mr. and Mrs. Buddy Holly in New York, 1958	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Off the record James Caesar Petrillo	By DAVID HINCKLEY
No bad habits Eubie Blake's century	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Marilyn serenades JFK, and JFK listens politely, 1962	By STEPHEN McFARLAND
Gift from heaven Jenny Lind, 1850	By MARA BOVSUN
Spaghetti death The Fugs	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Real sob ballad The Ink Spots find their song, 1939	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Golden days past Guy Lombardo rings in the new	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Wild Side Twisting at the Pep, 1961	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Salable pop The Weavers and the blacklist	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Scorn and disdain Spike Jones giffs Hitler der old birdaphone, 1942	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Transatlantic ritz Harry Richman's Birdman Holiday, 1936	By JAY MAEDER
Too much for Fun City The Topless Cellist, 1967	By MARA BOVSUN
Quite a hit Alexander's Mildly Similar Band, 1911	By DAVID HINCKLEY
The Furtwaengler affair Fracas at the Philharmonic, 1936	By ELLIOT ROSENBERG
Some kind of formation The Esquire jazz shoot, 1958	By DAVID HINCKLEY
Freaks from Iowa: Cherry Sisters on Broadway, 1896	By MARA BOVSUN
Alabaster bosoms Broadway's first musical, 1866	By FERGUS GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE
Armistice: God and Irving Berlin and Kate Smith bless America, 1938	BY JAY MAEDER