Initially, I did not intend to review this book for The Mississippi Rag because it's not about jazz. But early one evening I began scanning the introduction, and at 1:00 a.m. I was still reading.

True, the book isn't about jazz (it's about the musical theater), but it analyzes with perception and interesting historical detail, the genesis of many jazz standards. "Lover, Come Back to Me," for example (an unlikely jazz staple by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein 2^nd) would never have existed had not Hammerstein's lyrics forced fundamental changes in Romberg's musical phrases. Moreover, Burton Lane and Alan Lerner's "You're All the World To Me" had a different and less attractive melody until Fred Astaire got the idea of dancing on walls and ceiling and Alan Lerner wrote a string of metaphors for him to sing while doing it. Because this book teems with such detail, it is good reading for "song hounds."

Stephen Citron is a graceful, compelling writer, and experienced in the dual biography genre, having previously written a penetrating dual biography of Noel Coward and Cole Porter. Without straining credibility or forcing parallels, Citron is good at developing comparisons and contrasts between careers,personalities and accomplishments. In brief, this book explores how Hammerstein and Lerner, working with different partners and in somewhat different time frames, helped Broadway musicals grow from vaudeville revues to artistically integrated wholes. Even through the book is more concerned with creative accomplishments than private lives, we learn a lot about Hammerstein and Lerner's working methods and artistic priorities.

In a world that payes increasingly less attention to America's great popular songs, a book like this is always welcome.