There's No Business Like Show Business

"There’s No Business Like Show Business" by Irving Berlin/arr. Mark A. Brymer
(from Annie Get Your Gun)

Elysse Link and Gordon Freed with Mak’hela

Performed by Mak'hela Jewish Chorus of Western MA
http://www.makhela.org

Elaine Broad Ginsberg, music director
Jamie Goodnow, piano
Judy Gutlerner, clarinet

Recorded on 5/19/24 at the Yiddish Book Center (Amherst, MA) as part of Mak'hela's "Jewish Broadway!" concert.

Audio and video recording by Brian Bender
Clarinet arrangements by Judy Gutlerner and Elaine Broad Ginsberg

There’s No Business Like Show Business: Irving Berlin was one of the most significant
songwriters of the 20th century, having written approximately 1500 songs with more than
20 Broadway scores. The song, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” was written
by Irving Berlin for the show “Annie Get Your Gun.” It was reprised three times in the
musical.

Irving Berlin wrote, “Show business isn’t just scenery, lights, greasepaint and
glitter - it’s heart. Because if your show hasn’t got a heart, you haven’t got a show. That’s
what I tried to convey when I wrote this song.” Irving Berlin wrote to his press agent
about this piece: “certainly no one, including myself, realized at the time that it would
become the so-called theme song for show business.”

Irving Berlin (1888 - 1989), was one of the most successful songwriters of the 20th
century, having written over 1500 songs and more than 20 Broadway shows! He lived to
be 101 years old, with a 60 year career in music theater. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”
was the song that made him famous and created a national dance craze.
Berlin’s birth name was Israel Baline. In his teens, he collaborated with a pianist to
publish a song called “Marie of Sunny Italy.” When the song was published, the printer
accidentally misspelled his name as “Berlin,” and that’s how he got his new name, which
he kept throughout his career.

His father was a cantor but couldn’t find work as one in this country; he worked in
the meat market on the Lower East Side of New York where they lived. Irving sold
newspapers on the street. He started singing as he sold the papers to make extra money
and never graduated from sixth grade. After his father died, he became a singing waiter,
teaching himself how to play piano after working in the restaurant.
When he was drafted into the army, Irving was stationed in New York City. He
composed a show with the hit song “Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning” which
raised much money for soldiers. The grand finale included drafted soldiers marching from
the stage to the outside to where trucks were waiting for them to deploy.
When Berlin was asked to write a patriotic song for Kate Smith, he gave her one
he had written earlier, “God bless America.” His daughter said that the song was “very
personal, intended as an expression of deep gratitude for allowing him, an immigrant
raised in poverty, to become a successful song writer.“

“Annie Get Your Gun”was considered Berlin’s best musical. The famous song that
came from it, “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” became Ethel Merman’s
signature song.

Berlin won many awards, among them the Presidential Freedom Award presented
to him by President Ford in 1977. Walter Kronkite, the famous newscaster, said of him
that “he helped write the story of this country, capturing best who we are and the dreams
that shaped our lives.” Jerome Kern said, “Irving Berlin has no place in American music.
He IS American music.”

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We are grateful to the following organizations for their support:
Mass Cultural Council
Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts
Harold Grinspoon Foundation

Contributions will be gratefully welcomed.
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P.O. Box 2153
Amherst, MA, 01004