Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot: The Formative Years, 1907-1914Irving Berlin remains a central figure in American music, a lyricist composer whose songs are loved all over the world. His first piece, Marie from Sunny Italy, was written in 1907, and his Alexander's Ragtime Band attracted more public and media attention than any other song of its decade. In later years Berlin wrote such classics as God Bless America, Blue Skies, Always, Cheek to Cheek, and the holiday favorites White Christmas and Easter Parade.