Allen Forte devotes 17 chapters to the ballads written during the heyday of the Broadway musical, the big bands, and Tin Pan Alley. The first six chapters are introductory and cover the harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic features of popular ballads, lyrics, form, and the analytical procedures applied in the subsequent chapters.

Full chapters are devoted to Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Harold Arlen. Sharing chapters are Richard A. Whiting, Walter Donaldson, Harry Warren, Jimmy McHugh, Vincent Youmans, Duke Ellington, Kurt Weill, Hoagy Carmichael, Arthur Schwartz, Vernon Duke, Johnny Green, Burton Lane, Jimmy Van Heusen, Kay Swift, Bernice Petkere, Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, and Ruth Lowe. Forte focuses mainly on the songwriters’ works although he does include biographical sketches.

For jazz musicians and researchers who would like in-depth discussions on many of the greatest ballads, this is the book. Forte’s analyses of the songs may go deeper than casual readers will require, but there is a wealth of information surrounding the analytical parts which can be skimmed if so desired. Alec Wilder’s American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 is less analytical but the two books should be seen as complementary and not substitutes for one another. The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era also includes a five-page conclusion and an excellent index by song, writer, and concept.

Allen Forte, Battell Professor of the Theory of Music at Yale University, has written eight books, including Listening to Classic American Popular Songs with its accompanying CD, and dozens of articles about twentieth-century classical and popular music.