By: Joseph Bennington-Castro
It isn’t actually a book—but its songs helped define an era of American music.
The Great American Songbook refers to a loosely defined canon of popular or influential songs from the 1920s through the 1960s. Despite its name and implication, the Songbook is not a physical book and does not represent an official, universally agreed-upon list maintained by any single organization.
It is, instead, a living cultural legacy of music that Americans have enjoyed, performed and reimagined, generation after generation.
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At its core, the Songbook consists of compositions that have proved their staying power—tunes that are widely recognized, frequently performed and repeatedly recorded across decades. These include time-honored hits like “Summertime," “Over the Rainbow” and “My Funny Valentine.”
Often called “American standards” or “jazz standards,” the songs tend to have simple, attractive melodies paired with emotionally impactful lyrics that invite fresh interpretation. A tune from the Songbook can be reharmonized by a jazz pianist, reimagined by a vocalist or arranged in an entirely new style without losing its core meaning.
The Songbook standards often follow a similar structural pattern: an introductory verse followed by a 32-bar chorus composed of four eight-bar phrases. They typically have snappy, witty, rhyming lyrics that explore timeless, universal emotions and situations like love, heartbreak, nostalgia and hope—themes that especially resonated during the hardships of the Great Depression and World War II.
Many Songbook tunes were born in Tin Pan Alley—a Manhattan district that served as a hub for songwriters and music publishers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Songs were often created for Broadway shows, musical theater and Hollywood films.
Jazz musicians treat these tunes as standards: reliable material that allows for improvisation and personal expression. After World War II, jazz music shifted toward more instrumental tunes but jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae and Tony Bennett kept the songs popular. Fitzgerald’s Songbook albums remain a definitive collection and are considered essential listening for jazz musicians today.
The phrase "Great American Songbook" is not credited to any one person. While Fitzgerald’s recordings helped popularize many of the era’s standards, the term emerged gradually across music scholarship and popular culture.
Ella Fitzgerald on 'The Frank Sinatra Show,' 1958.
Ella Fitzgerald on 'The Frank Sinatra Show,' 1958.
No institution governs what belongs in the Songbook and that is part of what makes the concept meaningful. Organizations like The Great American Songbook Foundation and the Johnny Mercer Foundation have their own lists of Songbook tunes. There are even entire radio stations dedicated entirely to the genre.
Some contemporary artists like Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Bublé have built careers reinterpreting the Songbook. Even pop megastar Lady Gaga revisited the standards when she released collaborative albums in 2014 and 2021 with Tony Bennett, who performed Songbook material from the 1950s until his death in 2023.
Although the era associated with the Great American Songbook has long since ended, its music lives on, influencing contemporary pop, film scores and vocal performance to this day.
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Joey is a Hawaii-based journalist who has written more than 900 articles for the general public on a wide range topics, including history, health, astronomy, archaeology, artificial intelligence, and more.
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