Amore: The Story of Italian American Song (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), by Mark Rotella

From the end of World War II until the rise of rock ’n’ roll, Italian singers dominated the charts; the leading stars—Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett among them—enjoyed long careers even after pop culture moved on. As Mark Rotella reminds us, Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso was America’s first recording star in the early 20th century and Italians were active through the jazz and swing eras. The singers became a source of pride to an immigrant group facing hostility and prejudice from WASP America and their mellifluous voices captivated millions. More recent generations have produced musicians of Italian descent—Frank Zappa through Lady Gaga—but their sound is assimilated without any obvious old-country roots.