I selected F. Scott Fitzgeraldfor his remarkably specific and extensive use of popular music in his novels and short stories.
Mr. Fitzgerald’s body of work includes seventy-one song titles and innumerable lyrics.
His artistry in this regard was the subject of a Prospects Quarterly Reviewarticle titled “‘Poor Butterfly’: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Popular Music,” by Ruth Progozy. Per Ms. Progozy, “Fitzgerald used popular music with scrupulous concern for the aptness of title and lyric.”; for him, popular music was not simply part of the contemporary cultural scene; it was symbol, symptom, and sum of an era; it was past, present, and future playing endless elusive refrains.”; and “the strongest tie between [Fitzgerald’s] hero and heroine in their courtship is popular music.”
Believing in the power of titles and lyrics, as Ms. Progozy puts it, “to reflect the texture and substance of [Fitzgerald’s] characters’ lives and aspirations,” I determined to make popular music an integral part of The Remains of the Corps.