"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point in this business. You've got to keep on working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there."-- the legendary songwriter Irving Berlin (5/11/1888 - 9/22/1989). Berlin is perhaps the greatest songwriter of the 20th century (along with the Lennon-McCartney duo), penning such classics of the American Song Book as "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Cheek to Cheek," "Let's Face the Music and Dance," "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," "God Bless America," "How Deep Is The Ocean?," "Easter Parade," and his greatest hit of all "White Christmas." He composed an estimated 1,500 songs, while writing the scores for 15 Hollywood films and 20 Broadway shows.
Berlin was wrong that someday he'd reach for talent and it wouldn't be there: it was there for him throughout his long career.
(image: Wikimedia Commons)
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