Recent Brooklyn history influenced pop music and created new icons
Back in 1945, the Brooklyn Eagle published a column about a new song called “Give Me the Moon Over Brooklyn” recorded by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians. At the time, songs about Brooklyn were scarce, although some achieved fame over the years. Now that Brooklyn has become a cachet, an opera of them could be written instead of just a single aria. Many of the songs, styles and artists are unrecognizable to me but that’s just a matter of senility as well as taste. An online list of New York City titles rambles on for days but I’ve selected a few of the more memorable titles and artists.
The most popular titles begin with the name of the borough such as “Brooklyn,” one by Wizz and another by Steely Dan; then “Brooklyn Roads” by Neil Diamond; “Brooklyn Blues” by Barry Manilow; and “Brooklyn Boogie” by Louis Prima. The icon of the Brooklyn Bridge was serenaded by Frank Sinatra (in the film “It Happened in Brooklyn”) and by both Burl Ives and Buck Owens. (The latter is about love lost and jumping off the bridge). Art Garfunkel sang about what goes on “Just Over the Brooklyn Bridge.”