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Title: Great, second edition can be better
Review: What a great idea for a book. Very entertaining look at a handful of classic, mostly-American, pop songs. The origin of each song is described (that's the most interesting part) and then there's a pretty detailed run through of many of the recorded versions (that can get a bit tedious, especially if you're unfamiliar with the versions discussed).What it lacks is an index, and a formal discography. It would have also been nice if the lyrics of each song had been printed, and maybe the actual written music as well. Friedwald often describes the structure of the song by using the lyrics as guide posts, and that left me high and dry sometimes since I was, I'm ashamed to say, unfamiliar with some of these songs--I couldn't even hum St. Louis Blues, let alone recall any lyrics. A companion CD--or CDs--would have been nice as well, but that idea may be a little impractical.Those flaws aside, I'd recommend this to anyone with any interest in the subject.
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