Major Contributions by Minor group

Erving Berlin is an American songwriter and lyricist. He is considered as the greatest songwriter in American history.  Erving Berlin, whose birth name is Israel came to the US with his parents and 7 other siblings in 1888 from Temun Russia. He was born on May 11, 1888, and was the 8^th  and the youngest child of his parents. Irving’s father Moses was a Jewish cantor. Moses was forced to work in a market on arrival to the USA. Irving lived an unsupervised and a gang life with his pals playing street games when he was young. When Moses, Irving’s father died in 1896, young Irving ran away from home and earned money as a street singer and beginning as a companion to an unsavory singing beggar.

In 1906, Irving was hired to write songs at Pelham’s and that changed his fortunes and the course of American music forever. The newly named Berlin began to make a name for himself as a creative lyricist. “One of his specialties at Pelham's had been the ability to sing parodies of existing hit songs, much to the joy of the clientele” (Reublin, 2003). “In 1911, Berlin hit the hit song jackpot with a song that swept the country like wildfire; Alexander’s Ragtime Band (MIDI, Lyrics)” (Reublin, 2003). This song spread across the country like virus and took the country by storm. The writer of this article states that this could have given equal surprise to Berlin. During the time American went to war, Berlin not only wrote music for the uplifting the morale of the ones who lived at home but also joined the war and gave his best tow in the war. “The infectious tune and good-humored lyrics made the song one of the greatest to come out of the War and further established Berlin as a great songwriter”(Reublin, 2003).

Thus, Berlin, an immigrant from Russia was legend songwriter in American history at the age of only 30. He wrote 1500 songs, including scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards.

Reublin, R. A. (2003, February). The Dean of American Songwriters. Retrieved from http://parlorsongs.com/bios/berlin/iberlin.php

Irving Berlin. (2017, August 04). Retrieved August 06, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin