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Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart collaborated on more than forty shows before Hart’s death, contributing dozens of classic song hits to the Great American Songbook. This book focuses on the early period of their collaboration, before the huge successes of the 1930s. From 1919, when they met, until their brief flirtation with Hollywood in the early thirties, their output was prodigious, progressive, and experimental. During this period they developed their style and an approach to writing musicals that would be fundamental to the development of the form. Despite this, despite their numerous celebrated songs and the many Broadway and West End successes they enjoyed, the 1920s shows remain little known and important archives of their work little explored. Not just a historical study of their first collaborative years, this book also offers an accessible but authoritative study of their material, documenting the early shows and providing a critical and analytical commentary on their songwriting practice and its influence on the subsequent development of the American musical. In particular, the book explores three main themes: the way they developed a language of song whose techniques anticipate the development of the integrated musical; the way they increasingly understood their work as part of an industry, accommodating the needs of production into their creative practice; and the way their individual characters emerge throughout their careers as formative influences on the shows they would create. With a supporting cast including Herb Fields, Lew Fields, George Gershwin, Busby Berkeley, and Florenz Ziegfeld, this book places Rodgers and Hart at the center of a burgeoning art form.

This book is entirely dedicated to one of the most influential music labels of the twentieth century. In addition to creating the largest bluegrass catalog throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Starday was also known for its legendary rockabilly catalog, an extensive Texas honky-tonk outpouring, classic gospel and sacred recordings, and as a Nashville independent powerhouse studio and label. Written with the label president and co-founder, it traces the label’s origins in 1953 through the 1968 Starday–King merger. Interviews with artists and their families, employees, and the label’s president contribute to the stories behind famous hit songs, including “Y’all Come,” “A Satisfied Mind,” “Why Baby Why,” “Giddy-up Go,” “Alabama,” and many others. The book’s author’s research and interviews also shed new light on the musical careers of George Jones, Arlie Duff, Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, the Stanley Brothers, Cowboy Copas, Red Sovine, and countless other Starday artists. Conversations with the children of Pappy Daily and Jack Starns provide a unique perspective on the early days of Starday, and extensive interviews with the label’s president offer an insider glance at the country music industry during its golden era. Weathering the storm of rock and roll and, later, the Nashville Sound, Starday was a home to traditional country musicians and became one of the most successful independent labels in American history. Ultimately, this book is the record of a country music label that played an integral role in preserving America’s musical heritage.