Celebrating Tin Pan Alley

With Brian Wilson prompting a Gershwin renaissance in my listening habits of late, I reread Wilfred Sheed's delightful book, "The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole and a Crew of About Fifty." Just like the first time, I found the introduction tedious and overwrought and (again) felt like putting the book down. Thank goodness I didn't, for the riches beyond are immeasurable.

Once the reader adjusts to Sheed's breezy, smart-alecky style, the book is chock-full of insights about Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, Kern, Rodgers and the other great pre-rock American songwriters of the last century. Especially delightful to this reader is the chapter on James Van Heusen, as critical an element as arranger Nelson Riddle to Frank Sinatra's '50s masterworks, and how the microphone and radio influenced their sound.

Sheed's done a lot of thinking while he's been listening over the years, and it shows. Also, as Keith Richards notes in his newly released autobiography, "Good records just get better with age."