by Laurence Maslon

The music of Broadway is one of America's most unique and popular calling cards. In Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America, author Laurence Maslon tells the story of how the most beloved songs of the American Musical Theater made their way from the Theater District to living rooms across the country.

The crossroads where the music of Broadway meets popular culture is an expansive and pervasive juncture throughout most of the twentieth century--from sheet music to radio broadcasts to popular and original cast recordings--and continues to influence culture today through television, streaming, and the Internet. The original Broadway cast album--from the 78 rpm recording of Oklahoma! to the digital download of Hamilton--is one of the most successful, yet undervalued, genres in the history of popular recording. The challenge of capturing musical narrative with limited technology inspired the imagination of both the recording industry and millions of listeners: between 1949 and 1969, fifteen different original cast albums hit number one on the popular music charts, ultimately tallying more weeks at number one than all of the albums by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles combined. The history of Broadway music is also the history of American popular music; the technological, commercial, and marketing forces of communications and media over the last century were inextricably bound up in the enterprise of bringing the musical gems of New York's Theater District to living rooms along Main Streets across the nation.

Featuring new interviews with Stephen Schwartz, Chita Rivera, Steve Lawrence, and prominent record producers and music critics, the story of this commercial and emotional phenomenon is told here in full--from the imprimatur of sheet music from Broadway in the early 20th century to the renaissance of Broadway music in the digital age, folding in the immense impact of show music on American culture and in the context of the recording industry, popular tastes, and our shared national identity. A book which connects cherished cultural artifacts to the emotional narratives at the core of American popular music, Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America is an ideal companion for all fans of American musical theater and popular music.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: House Seat: Music and the private space of Broadway
Chapter 1. Turn Over For Act Two: Content and the context of Broadway
Chapter 2. The Jewish Population of Tennessee: Sheet music and the imprimatur of Broadway
Chapter 3. Face the Music (and Dance): The gramophone and the voice of Broadway
Chapter 4. The Majestic Theater of the Air: Radio and the personality of Broadway
Chapter 5: The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends: Albums sets and the narrative of Broadway
Chapter 6. Every Home's a First Night: The Long-Playing record and the commodity of Broadway
Chapter 7. Songs For Swingin' Show Fans: Hit singles and the catalogue of Broadway
Chapter 8. "And My Fair Lady Is a Terrific Show," They Say: The record producer and the blockbuster of Broadway
Chapter 9. Hymn to a Sunday Evening: Television and the mythology of Broadway
Chapter 10. A Few of My Favorite Things: Movie stars and the soundtrack of Broadway
Chapter 11. Was There Too Much of a Crowd, All Too Lush and Loud?: Pop singles and the adult contemporaneity of Broadway
Chapter 12. Losing My Timing This Late in My Career: The rock scene and the margin road of Broadway
Chapter 13. You Never Seen a Show Like This Before: Compact discs and the digitalization of Broadway
Chapter 14. History Has Its Eyes On You: The Internet and the mixtape of Broadway

Endnotes
Bibliography
Index