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'S WONDERFUL Songs of GEORGE GERSHWIN Original 1920-1949 Recordings 'I like a Gershwin tune,how about you?' asks the famous Arthur Freed-Burton Lane song...

'S WONDERFUL


Songs of GEORGE GERSHWIN


Original 1920-1949 Recordings

'I like a Gershwin tune,how about you?' asks the famous Arthur Freed-Burton Lane song and most listeners would agree emphatically.

There's something about the music of George Gershwin (especially when coupled with the idiosyncratic lyrics of his brother Ira) that makes it still sound as fresh today as it did when first written. This eclectic collection of twenty numbers takes us through his all-too-brief career and gives us an ample sampling of his genius.

I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise was written with Buddy DeSylva. Although created as the Act I Finale of George White's Scandals of 1922, you probably won't be able to listen to it without remembering that scene from An American In Paris where Georges Guetary sang it climbing a giant staircase, which illuminated step by step as he ascended.

Irving Caesar claims that he and Gershwin wrote Swanee in less than an hour one evening after dinner. Caesar was prone to exaggeration, but one thing is clear: once Al Jolson got through singing it in a 1918 show called Sinbad,Gershwin found himself with his first hit at the age of 21. The Great Jolson sings it here in a 1920 studio recording.

We're now so used to well-integrated musicals, that we often forget that during the 1920s, producers would sign up a cast first, then build a show around them. 1924's Lady Be Good was one of those cases. The Gershwins had to ply their craft not only for Fred and Adele Astaire, but for the then-popular novelty performer Cliff Edward, better known as 'Ukulele Ike'. Here's what he sounded like on Fascinating Rhythm.

Gertrude Lawrence was one of the major superstars of her time, but it's hard to see how from listening to her frail voice, which often went quaveringly off-key. All critics said you had to imagine her charm. So do that, and picture her clutching a tattered Pierrot doll as she sat alone in a spotlight and broke everyone's heart singing Someone to Watch Over Me from a trifle called Oh, Kay! One of the most interesting things about the next selection 'S Wonderful is the lady singing it.

Vaughn De Leath was known as 'the First Lady of Radio' in the 1920s, appearing all over the dial.

But after 1931, personal troubles drove her out of performing and she died in alcoholic obscurity.

Listen to her here at the height of her fame in 1928.

For a hit song, The Man I Love has a highly unsuccessful history. It was originally cut from Lady Be Good in 1924, then sung in the flop out of town tryout of Strike Up The Band in 1927, cut again from Rosalie in 1928 and finally rejected from the revised version of Strike Up The Band in 1929 - because it had become too popular from independent recordings. You never can tell.

The number Liza,written for the 1929 musical Show Girl is best remembered as an Al Jolson number, although he wasn't officially in the show. His wife,Ruby Keeler,was appearing in the production and very nervous about it. Jolson took to standing up in the audience and singing along with the song, supposedly to give Keeler courage.

How she felt about it,we'll never know, but you can hear what Jolson sounded like performing it.

The only thing that stayed the same about Strike Up The Band was its title. Originally conceived as a dark 1927 anti-war satire, it flopped on the road, only to re-emerge two years later as a comic romp. George reportedly wrote six versions of the title song and Ira dutifully fitted brand new lyrics to every one. If there's a little desperation in the line 'Hey leader, strike up the band!', it's understandable.

Ethel Zimmerman was an unknown stenographer from Astoria, Queens, when she stopped a 1930 show called Girl Crazy cold by holding one note seemingly forever in I Got Rhythm. She dropped the 'Zim' and became a great star as Ethel Merman, recording the song later in 1947 when she was at the height of her powers.

Embraceable You was supposedly the favourite song of the Gershwins' father, the Russianborn Morris Gershovitz. The reason? One line: 'Come to poppa, come to poppa, do.' Maybe that's why Judy Garland doesn't change the gender of the lyric in this 1939 recording, even though she could be forgiven for wanting to be a 'momma'instead.

'Cowboy songs'were what they called Country and Western numbers in the 1930s and they were highly popular even back then. It seems that most major Broadway composers had their turn at writing a piece in this genre. Cole Porter struck it big with "Don't Fence Me In"in Hollywood Canteen, but the Gershwins had got there first, years before, with Bidin' My Time.

Lyda Roberti was one of those highly distinctive personalities who flourished in the world of 1930s showbusiness. Polish-born, Shanghairaised, she came to America in the 1920s, but never lost her middle-European accent. Until her untimely death in 1938 at the age of only 32, she was a popular comedienne. This recording is from a 1933 radio performance on Rudy Vallee's programme.

The song is a novelty number from Pardon My English called My Cousin In Milwaukee.

Let 'Em Eat Cake was a prime illustration of the truism:'Sequels are Never Equals'. The entire production team from the wildly triumphant Of Thee I Sing reunited two years later to create a sequel, which flopped appallingly. All that's come down to us through the years is one catchy contrapuntal tune,Mine, performed here by Bing Crosby and Judy Garland.

Ira Gershwin frequently wrote 'dummy lyrics' to set the exact cadence of George's tricky rhythms in his head. For this next number from Porgy and Bess, he used two phrases: 'An order of bacon and eggs' and 'Don't ever sell telephone short'. We will continue to remember it best by the title he finally settled on: It Ain't Necessarily So.

So many people have recorded Summertime in so many styles, that we often forget it was written as a lullaby, which Clara sings to her baby at the start of Porgy and Bess. The necessary gentleness is provided here by Mable Mercer in a 1941 recording which displays a lighter, clearer tone than her more famous work from the '50s and '60s.

One of the charms of the Gershwin songs is how they transformed the seemingly ordinary into art.Nice Work If You Can Get It (written for the 1937 Fred Astaire film A Damsel in Distress) turns a conversational commonplace and a simple melody line into something special, through sheer compositional alchemy. Billie Holliday captures the tone perfectly in this version with Teddy Wilson's orchestra.

When George Gershwin died unexpectedly of a brain tumor in 1937 at the age of 38, he was working on a film called The Goldwyn Follies.

Love Walked In was one of the two numbers he succeeded in completing, although his close friend,Vernon Duke, helped tie up some musical loose ends. Popular musical star of the period, Kenny Baker, introduced the number in the film.

Fred Astaire performed to the songs of the Gershwins in numerous Broadway shows and feature films. There's something about his style that matches well with theirs: a casual elegance, an understated craft, a pervasive charm. It's on perfect display in They Can't Take That Away From Me, in a 1949 recording with Lennie Hayton and the MGM Studio Orchestra.

Some historians claim that the clarinet glissando which introduces Rhapsody In Blue is one of the most significant sounds in modern music: the moment when jazz crossed the line into art and popular composition was accepted as something other than Tin Pan Alley songwriting.

The piece was first heard in Aeolian Hall, New York, on 12 February 1924 in a concert organized by Paul Whiteman. It's performed here by Jack Hylton and his orchestra in a 1933 British recording.

Richard Ouzounian

Disc 1

George White's Scandals of 1922 (more info)
Performed by: Paul Whiteman Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Paul Whiteman
Recording date: 1 September 1922


1.   George White’s Scandals of 1922: I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise - 3:13


Sinbad (more info)
Performed by: Charles A. Prince Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Charles Adams Prince, piano
Al Jolson, vocals
Recording date: 8 January 1920


2.   Sinbad: Swanee - 2:34


Lady, be Good! (more info)
Composed by: George Gershwin
Cliff Edwards, vocals
Recording date: 8 January 1920


3.   Lady, Be Good!: Fascinating Rhythm - 2:51


Oh, Kay! (more info)
Performed by: His Majesty's Theatre Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Arthur Wood
Gertrude Lawrence, vocals
Recording date: 25 October 1927


4.   Oh, Kay!: Someone To Watch Over Me - 2:43


Oh, Kay! (more info)
Composed by: Ralph Rainger George Gershwin
Edgar Fairchild, piano
Recording date: 13 December 1926


5.   Oh, Kay! (excerpts): Fidgety Feet - Maybe - Clap Yo’ Hands - Do-do-do - 3:24


Funny Face (more info)
Performed by: Ernie Golden Hotel McAlpine Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Ernie Golden
Vaughn de Leath, vocals
Recording date: 27 March 1928


6.   Funny Face: ’S Wonderful - 3:18


Strike up the band (more info)
Composed by: George Gershwin
Studio guitarist, guitar
Marion Harris, vocals
Studio violinist, violin
Studio pianist, piano
Recording date: 8 December 1927


7.   Strike Up the Band: The Man I Love - 3:31


Show Girl (more info)
Performed by: Studio orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Al Jolson, vocals
Recording date: 25 July 1929


8.   Show Girl: Liza, "All the Clouds’ll Roll Away" - 2:52


Strike up the band (more info)
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Frank Black
Recording date: 31 March 1930


9.   Strike Up The Band: Strike Up The Band - 2:09


Girl Crazy (more info)
Performed by: Jay Blackton Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Jay Blackton
Ethel Merman, vocals
Recording date: 12 December 1947


10.   Girl Crazy: I Got Rhythm - 2:59


Girl Crazy (more info)
Performed by: Victor Young Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Victor Young
Judy Garland, vocals
Recording date: 16 October 1939


11.   Girl Crazy: Embraceable You - 2:49


Girl Crazy (more info)
Composed by: George Gershwin
Recording date: 8 July 1939


12.   Girl Crazy: Bidin’ My Time - 2:36


Pardon My English (more info)
Performed by: Rudy Vallee Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Rudy Valle
Lyda Roberti, vocals
Recording date: 26 January 1933


13.   Pardon My English: My Cousin In Milwaukee - 2:30


Let 'Em Eat Cake (more info)
Performed by: Joseph Lilley Orchestra
Composed by: Bing Crosby George Gershwin
Conducted by: Joseph Lilley
Judy Garland, vocals
Recording date: 20 January 1947


14.   Let ’Em Eat Cake: Mine - 2:45


Porgy and Bess (more info)
Performed by: Guy Lombardo Royal Canadians
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Guy Lombardo
Recording date: 14 December 1935


15.   Porgy and Bess: It Ain’t Necessarily So - 3:11


Porgy and Bess (more info)
Composed by: George Gershwin
Mabel Mercer, vocals
Cy Walter, piano
Recording date: 1941


16.   Porgy and Bess: Summertime - 2:56


A Damsel in Distress (more info)
Performed by: Teddy Wilson Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Teddy Wilson
Billie Holiday, vocals
Recording date: 20 January 1947


17.   A Damsel In Distress: Nice Work If You Can Get It - 3:05


Goldwyn Follies (more info)
Performed by: Harry Sosnik Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Harry Sosnik
Kenny Baker, vocals
Recording date: 22 April 1938


18.   Goldwyn Follies: Love Walked In - 2:39


Shall We Dance (more info)
Performed by: MGM Studio Orchestra
Composed by: George Gershwin
Conducted by: Lennie Hayton
Fred Astaire, vocals
Recording date: 12 February 1949


19.   Shall We Dance: They Can’t Take That Away From Me - 3:05


Rhapsody In Blue (more info)
Performed by: Jack Hylton Orchestra Frank Black Orchestra Paul Whiteman Orchestra Paul Whiteman Concert Orchestra
Composed by: Oscar Levant Alec Templeton Jack Hylton Nathaniel Shilkret George Gershwin
Conducted by: Carroll Gibbons Paul Whiteman Frank Black
Larry Adler, harmonica
Recording date: 21st April 1927


20.   Rhapsody In Blue - 6:06

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