Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 - September 22, 1989) was one of the most prolific and successful songwriters of all time. His accomplishments as a composer and lyricist are even more remarkable when you consider that English wasn’t his native language (he grew up speaking Yiddish) and his piano skills were limited to playing in only one key (he famously had a custom built piano with a “gear shift” to transpose the instrument into other keys)! He was an astute businessman as well, one of the first songwriters to control his own publishing. Jazz musicians have embraced his tunes for their lyricism and harmonic twists since his earliest hit, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, which he wrote around the time he was still working as a singing waiter on New York City’s lower East side.
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