500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics

Someone has to be able to sing the lyrics to the song at our get togethers, so I looked for a book with just the lyrics. Everyone seems to remember the tune, but not the lyrics. This book filled the bill!

This book is amazingly comprehensive in the types of songs it presents. It includes hymns, Chistmas carols, spirituals, folk songs,national anthems (British, Canadian and American) and even nursery rhymes. The folk songs are mainly American, but Welsh, Scottish, Irish, French, Mexican and those of other nationalities are included as well. The author has done an excellent job. Although the coverage is very good, it omits such well-known songs as Mocking Bird Hill and Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes. Let's hope that a later edition will rectify such omissions.

500 Songs sounds like a lot. It is fun to go through the book and see how many songs you know. I don't know who decided these were the top 500, but they did a good job. It is a book of lyrics only. I wish it had included the sheet music, musical notation. Overall I feel I got my monies worth,. I drag it out every now and then and just sing out load, even if it bothers the cat.

It is rare to be able to find the lyrics to songs of the past; particularly if you are looking for songs by Berlin, Gershwin, Von Tilzer, Cohan, and so many of the song-writing giants of a bygone era. Most of the songs in this collection are pop standards, spirituals, folk songs, ragtime, and what-you-will. They are here with both their verses and chorus's. What a joy! What a blast from the past! And the price is miniscule compared to the value. I would've paid the price of the book for the lyric to just one or two of the songs in this book. In most cases each song has its publishing date with the author(s) name alongside the title. I was surprised that so many of the songs I've loved were first published so long ago. Treat yourself to a volume you will treasure. Sit down at the old keyboard and sing out!

Do you ever find yourself singing an old familiar song and replacing most of the words with la-la-la? Do you just get started belting out an old favorite and you come to the end of the first verse too soon? Do you want to know the words to a song, but don't care about the music? This book is the answer. I can't say that it contains every song you will look for, but I can tell you that when I looked through it, it was like opening a long lost treasure. Many of the songs I had completely forgotten were there with all the verses. What a joy! I will sing all night!