'Say It Isn't So' - Songs of Irving Berlin
Original 1919-1950 Recordings

Irving Berlin once wrote a song called 'Say It With Music' and even though it's not one of the 21 selections on this recording, its title does serve as a kind of mission statement. Berlin always did 'say it with music' and this selection of tunes provides some revealing insights into the life and career of the man born Isadore Baline in Russia in 1888.

Alexander's Ragtime Band
At the age of 23, Berlin had his first big hit. He claims the melody 'came to him out of the air' in 1911 and he wrote it first as an instrumental. Then he set words to it, vaudeville star Emma Carus launched it, numerous other entertainers picked it up and it sold over 2,000,000 copies. This 1947 version features Al Jolson & Bing Crosby.

A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
This was written during the tryout of the 1919 Ziegfeld Follies. The 'great glorifier' wanted a song to link fiv