The Great American Songbook (Or "How I Learned About a Love So Timeless Not Even Julie London Could End It")

A collaborative effort from the archives.

Hi kids, how are you holding up? ❄️ Here on the East Coast the first snowfall of winter ✨and✨ my Seasonal Depression has softly settled in, so presently I’m de-thawing in front of a fireplace. If you’re also in the January doldrums, fingers-crossed this story will keep you cozy. Today we’re taking a page out of Greek Mythology. 

Well, Greek-American Mythology.

Back in June, when I could remember joy, I was packing for a retreat in Greece with Hellenistic wellness company Yia Mas. I’m half-Greek, I’d never been to the motherland, and I needed something to read by the Aegean Sea. In a moment of serendipity, I found a vintage text of Greek & Roman Mythology owned by my grandparents. Sandwiched in the pages was a bookmark boasting “Margaret J. Garis” and a sheet of song names.

 “Oh shit,” I thought. “YiaYia made me a playlist.”

This was *quite* a treat, since my paternal grandparents have been Hella Dead for almost two decades. As I knew them, my YiaYia was beautiful artist with power-brows and a habit for hoarding. Papou was the ersatz mayor of a small town called Tottenville—wise and warm, with a walrus mustache and a talent for photography. Between the two of them I was left with plenty of ~*content*~ for the Garis family archives, but I can spot genuine treasure. A mysterious page of mostly American Standards qualifies as such.

But what is this? Why is this? Maybe it would help to know the Ballad of George and Margaret…

And it could help to know the gist on American Standards

I adore American Standards—from “The Great American Songbook,” I have no strong opinion on the toilets.

If you’re unfamiliar, “The Great American Songbook” refers to a canon of music popular from the 1920s to the 1960s, when America was finding its like, literal voice as a country. Typically it includes jazz songs, Broadway showtunes, and/or classics from Hollywood musicals, by composers like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rodgers of Rodgers & Hammerstien. Guys, you know these songs. “Dream a Little Dream of Me” is an American Standard, “Unchained Melody” is an American Standard. If Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald sang it, it’s probably an American standard.

But the true defining quality of an American Standard is their structure. American Standards have strong melodic bones and timeless, emotion-driven themes, giving them the ability reinterpreted again and again. And this preservation of American Standards is important for creating a shared musical language that crosses generations, while maintaining a history of the United States that isn’t completely depressing and shameful.

Thank you! Now onto our love story.