Nice Work If You Can Get It: My Life in Rhythm and Rhyme Hardcover – October 12, 1995 by Michael Feinstein
 
Looking back on his beginnings as a performer, one of America's most popular cabaret singers pays tribute to the Gershwins and the other composers who inspired him, reflecting on what made their music great. Tour.
 
From Library Journal
Prior to emerging as a popular tuxedoed cabaret artist, Feinstein worked as Ira Gershwin's personal archivist. This book affords a fascinating glimpse into the bizarre Gershwin household late in Ira's life. We get a picture of Ira as a sweet, insecure, and weary old man, still obsessed with, and devoted to, his more famous, long-dead brother George. Ira's wife, Leonore, appears as a pill-popping and manipulative former flapper. It is strange that in this work, ostensibly an autobiography, we learn far more about the Gershwin family than about the author. Still, Feinstein's love of the American songbook is evident, and even if he is cagey about his personal life, the book is literally stuffed with interesting anecdotes about Harry Warren (for whom he also worked briefly), Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Irving Caesar, and others. And there is an insightful chapter on the art of writing and singing lyrics. Recommended for public libraries.
Michael Colby, Univ. of California, Davis
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
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