Editing Irving Berlin (section)

==Film scores==
===1920s–1950s===
In 1927, his song "[[Blue Skies (1926 song)|Blue Skies]]" was featured in the first feature-length [[talkie]], ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'', with [[Al Jolson]]. Later, movies such as ''[[Top Hat]]'' (1935) became the first of a series of distinctive film musicals by Berlin starring performers [[Bing Crosby]], [[Fred Astaire]], [[Judy Garland]], [[Ginger Rogers]], and [[Alice Faye]]. ''Top Hat'' featured a brand-new score, as did several more, including ''[[Follow the Fleet]]'' (1936), ''[[On the Avenue]]'' (1937), ''[[Carefree (film)|Carefree]]'' (1938), and ''[[Second Fiddle (1939 film)|Second Fiddle]]'' (1939). Starting with ''[[Alexander's Ragtime Band (film)|Alexander's Ragtime Band]]'' (1938), he often blended new songs with existing ones from his catalog. He continued this process with the films ''[[Holiday Inn (film)|Holiday Inn]]'' (1942), ''[[Blue Skies (1946 film)|Blue Skies]]'' (1946) and ''[[Easter Parade (film)|Easter Parade]]'' (1948), with [[Judy Garland]] and Fred Astaire, and ''[[There's No Business Like Show Business (film)|There's No Business Like Show Business]]'' (1954).<ref name=":0" />

===="White Christmas" (1942)====
The 1942 film ''[[Holiday Inn (film)|Holiday Inn]]'' introduced "[[White Christmas (song)|White Christmas]]", one of the most recorded songs in history. First sung in the film by [[Bing Crosby]] (along with [[Marjorie Reynolds]], whose voice was dubbed by [[Martha Mears]]<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-marjorie-reynolds-1278697.html| title=Obituary: Marjorie Reynolds| date=February 15, 1997| work=The Independent| location=London| access-date=September 28, 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref>), it stayed no. 1 on the pop and R&B charts for 10 weeks, and went on to over 50 million records. Crosby's version is the [[List of best-selling singles|best-selling single]] of all time. Music critic [[Stephen Holden]] credits this partly to the fact that "the song also evokes a primal nostalgia—a pure childlike longing for roots, home and childhood—that goes way beyond the greeting imagery."<ref name=NYT-87/>

[[Richard Corliss]] also notes that the song was even more significant having been released soon after America entered [[World War II]]: [it] "connected with... GIs in their first winter away from home. To them it voiced the ache of separation and the wistfulness they felt for the girl back home, for the innocence of youth...."<ref name=Corliss/> Poet [[Carl Sandburg]] wrote, "We have learned to be a little sad and a little lonesome without being sickly about it. This feeling is caught in the song of a thousand jukeboxes and tune whistled in streets and homes, 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas'. When we sing that we don't hate anybody. And there are things we love that we're going to have sometimes if the breaks are not too bad against us. Way down under this latest hit of his, Irving Berlin catches us where we love peace."<ref name=Corliss/><ref name=":0" />

"White Christmas" won Berlin the [[Academy Award]] for Best Music in an Original Song, one of seven Oscar nominations he received during his career. In subsequent years, it was re-recorded and became a top-10 seller for numerous artists: [[Frank Sinatra]], [[Jo Stafford]], [[Ernest Tubb]], [[The Ravens]] and [[The Drifters]]. It would also be the last time a Berlin song went to no. 1 upon its release.

Berlin is the only Academy Award presenter and Academy Award winner to open the "envelope" and read his or her own name (for "White Christmas"). This result was so awkward for Berlin (since he had to present the Oscar to himself) that the academy changed the rules of protocol the following year to prevent this situation from arising again.

Talking about Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", composer–lyricist Garrison Hintz stated that although songwriting can be a complicated process, its final result should sound simple. Considering the fact that "White Christmas" has only eight sentences in the entire song, lyrically Mr. Berlin achieved all that was necessary to eventually sell over 100 million copies and capture the hearts of the American public at the same time.<ref>Ascap magazine article, Tribute to Irving Berlin December 1989</ref>