Irving Berlin

IRVING BERLIN d1989. Russian born Jewish-American composer and lyricist widely considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in American history, his music forms a large part of the Great American songbook. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy" in 1907 (receiving 37 cents for the publishing rights) and had his first major international hit "Alexanders Ragtime Band" in 1911. He went onto write hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits which made him a legend before he even turned thirty. During his 60-year career, he wrote an estimated 1500 songs (including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films) with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. His songs have reached the top of the charts 25 times and have become popular themes and anthems recorded by numerous famous artists including ; Al Jolson / Frank Sinatra / Dean Martin / Fred Astaire / Judy Garland / Barbara Streisand / Nat King Cole / Billie Holiday / Bob Dylan and Bing Crosby. These include ; Easter Parade / White Christmas / Easter Parade and There's No Business Like Show Business. White Christmas is the biggest selling record of all time with estimated total worldwide sales of 250 million copies (the Bing Crosby version alone selling 100 million units). Composer George Gershwin called him "the greatest songwriter that ever lived". He died of natural causes in New York aged 101 in 1989