Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins

Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins by Jenkins, Bruce. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781583941263.

Goodbye combines biography with a sons discovery of his father. Gordon Jenkins, one of Americas most significant musical figures throughout his 50-year career, collaborated with many of the major talents in postwar pop and jazz. Modest by nature, he rarely spoke of his accomplishments, and there was much to discover when, on account of his fathers death in 1984, Bruce Jenkins began his research. Paralleling the story of Gordon Jenkinss personal life is a veritable history of popular music, featuring luminaries from Irving Berlin to Billie Holiday. This richly anecdotal biography relates a wealth of heretofore untold stories of his encounters with icons like Sinatra, who was uncharacteristically awestruck by him, and Judy Garland, whom only Jenkins could convince to go onstage when she was crippled with anxiety. A concluding chapter documents Jenkinss slow, difficult death from ALS, leaving readers with an unforgettable image of a legend dying with dignity and unexpected good humor.