They All Sang My Songs

Reviewer's Bookwatch, Jan, 2005 by Willis M. Buhle

They All Sang My Songs

Jack Lawrence

Barricade Books

185 Bridge Plaza North, Suite 308-A, Fort Lee, NJ 07024

1569802793 $27.95 www.barricadebooks.com

Jack Lawrence was a successful song writer whose melodies and lyrics helped to launch more than a dozen top show business stars including Frank Sinatra ("All or Nothing at All"), Bobby Darin ("Beyond the Sea"), Rosemary Clooney ("Tenderly"), Dinah Shore ("Yes, My Darling Daughter"), and The Ink Spots ("If I Didn't Care"). In his autobiography, Lawrence describes his Jewish upbringing in Brooklyn, his difficult and distressing realization that he was gay, and his show business career ups and downs. Readers will also have an insider's view of the music industry's Big Band era, as well as Lawrence's personal and professional relationships with the top performers of his day. They All Sang My Songs: The Times Of My Life is a memoir laced with humor, candor, and a wealth of anecdotal stories drawn from an unusual life. Highly recommended reading, They Sang All My Songs is enhanced with many of Lawrence's lyrics and the stories behind their creation as well as the inclusion of two 16-page photo inserts.