(b Brooklyn, NY, 26 Sept 1898; d Hollywood, CA, 11 July 1937). American composer, pianist, and conductor. He began his career as a song plugger in New York’s Tin Pan Alley; by the time he was 20 he had established himself as a composer of Broadway shows, and by the age of 30 he was America’s most famous and widely accepted composer of concert music.
2. From Broadway to ‘Rhapsody in Blue’.
3. Years of celebrity and expansion.
5. Concert works and ‘Porgy and Bess’.
RICHARD CRAWFORD (text), WAYNE J. SCHNEIDER (work-list), NORBERT CARNOVALE (bibliography)
Gershwin’s parents, Moshe Gershovitz and Rose Bruskin, emigrated from Russia to the USA in the 1890s and settled in New York, where they met and married in 1895. The family lived under one roof until long after the four children were grown. George found an artistic collaborator in the person of his older brother Ira, who wrote the lyrics for most of his songs.
Gershwin’s boyhood was marked by an interest in athletics and an indifference to school. Music was seldom heard at home until 1910, when the Gershwins bought their first piano. Though it had been intended for Ira, George quickly took it over; he progressed rapidly in lessons with neighbourhood teachers and about 1912 was accepted as a pupil of Charles Hambitzer. Recognizing ‘genius’ in Gershwin, Hambitzer took him to concerts and assigned him pieces by composers such as Chopin, Liszt and Debussy. In 1914, however, Gershwin turned to a musical world closer to home when he dropped out of high school and went to work for Jerome H. Remick & Co., a music publishing firm on Tin Pan Alley, for $15 per week.
Remick hired the 15-year-old Gershwin as a song plugger – a salesman who promoted the firm’s songs by playing and singing them for performers. Endless hours at the keyboard improved his playing: he cut his first piano rolls in 1915 (by 1926 he had made more than 100), and he became a skilled vocal accompanist. He also began to compose songs and piano pieces of his own, though with no encouragement from his employers. Finally, he aspired to move from Tin Pan Alley, with its emphasis on songs written to commercial formulas, to the Broadway musical stage, where men like Jerome Kern were applying a more highly developed musical artistry to writing scores for entire shows.
Gershwin left Remick & Co. in March 1917 and by July was working as the rehearsal pianist for Miss 1917, a show by Kern and Victor Herbert. After the show opened in November at the Century Theater, he stayed on as the organizer of and accompanist for popular concerts held there on Sunday evenings. His talent as a composer was also noticed. Although he had previously published little, in early 1918 Max Dreyfus, the head of Harms publishing company, offered him $35 per week for the rights to any songs he might compose in the future. Before the year was out, three Broadway shows carried songs by Gershwin. Soon thereafter he composed his first full Broadway score, for La La Lucille which opened on 26 May 1919. Well before his 21st birthday, Gershwin, known as an outstanding pianist, could also claim a Broadway show on the boards, several songs in print, and a prestigious publisher awaiting more.
The 1920s saw Gershwin realize his early promise. Swanee, recorded in 1920 by the popular singer Al Jolson, was his first hit song, yielding some $10,000 in composer’s royalties in that year alone. Under contract to the producer George White, he composed the music for five annual Broadway reviews (1920–24). For other producers he wrote scores for three Broadway shows and two London ones. Primrose (1924), his second London show, was a success, followed in the same year by Lady be Good!, starring Fred and Adele Astaire and the first of his shows for which Ira wrote all the lyrics. The latter included the songs Fascinating Rhythm and Oh, lady, be good!, both of which became standards of the American song repertory.
In 1924 Gershwin became famous for composing and then performing, in a well publicized concert organized by the dance band leader Paul Whiteman, the Rhapsody in Blue for piano and orchestra. The work was first performed in New York’s Aeolian Hall on 12 February in a concert billed as ‘An Experiment in Modern Music’. It purported to demonstrate that the new, rhythmically vivacious dance music called jazz, which most concert musicians and critics considered beneath them, was elevated by the ‘symphonic’ arrangements in which Whiteman’s band specialized. Gershwin’s Rhapsody won both the audience’s approval and the critics’ attention. Performed repeatedly, and also recorded, the work also won renown for its composer, as a historical figure – the man who had brought ‘jazz’ into the concert hall.
Although most observers saw Rhapsody in Blue as a new departure for the young songwriter, in fact it reaffirmed Gershwin's continuing involvement with classical music. In 1915 he had begun to study harmony, counterpoint, orchestration and musical form with Kilenyi, continuing at least to 1921. His first classical piece, the Lullaby for string quartet (c1919), was apparently composed as a harmony exercise for Kilenyi. His second, a brief opera called Blue Monday, opened the second act of George White’s Scandals for 1922 but was withdrawn after its first performance. On 1 November 1923 Gershwin performed in an Aeolian Hall recital by the Canadian mezzo soprano Eva Gauthier that helped to set the stage for Whiteman’s concert less than three months later. In a programme that ranged from songs by Purcell and Bellini to works by Schoenberg, Hindemith and Bartók, Gauthier included compositions by Gershwin, Kern, Irving Berlin and Walter Donaldson, the latter group accompanied by Gershwin. The musical juxtapositions of Rhapsody in Blue had roots in a sensibility that never fully accepted a separation between popular and classical genres.
Growing fame and affluence (between 1924 and 1934 Gershwin received more than a quarter of a million dollars from performances, recordings and rental fees of the Rhapsody in Blue alone) brought about changes in Gershwin’s life. In 1925 he moved his family from an apartment to a town house in a fashionable neighbourhood on New York’s upper west side. About the same time he began to develop his interest in the visual arts, collecting paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings, and taking up painting himself. He also became known as a figure in New York theatrical and literary circles, enlivening and often dominating parties with his piano playing.
After the success of the Rhapsody, new patterns emerged in Gershwin’s composing life. He continued to write scores for the musical theatre, though at a somewhat slower rate. He gave more and more attention to concert music, studying with a succession of teachers including Rubin Goldmark, Riegger and Cowell. He devoted much of the summer of 1925 to composing the Concerto in F for piano and orchestra, commissioned by Walter Damrosch and the New York SO. The Preludes for Piano were introduced in December 1926 as part of a recital in which he accompanied the contralto Marguerite d’Alvarez. During much of 1928 Gershwin was occupied with the composition of the tone poem An American in Paris, written in part during a trip to Europe from mid-March to June. Travelling with family members, Gershwin was welcomed as a musical celebrity; he met many composers, including Prokofiev, Milhaud, Poulenc, Ravel, Walton and Berg, and heard both Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F played in his honour by French musicians. In the summer of 1929 he made his début as a conductor in an open-air concert at Lewisohn Stadium in New York where before an audience of more than 15,000 he conducted the New York PO in An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue, playing the piano part of the latter himself. In October of that year, he signed a contract to compose a ‘Jewish opera’, to be called The Dybbuk, for the Metropolitan Opera, but he never fulfilled that commission. Even during his first stay in Hollywood (from November 1930 to February 1931), Gershwin maintained his commitment to concert music; while he and Ira wrote the score for the film Delicious (for which they were paid $100,000) and began the Broadway musical Of Thee I Sing, he also composed most of his Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra.
Remarkably, Gershwin broadened his musical scope without sacrificing his popularity. Free of false modesty, he reveled in success, which he accepted as no more than his due. By the early 1930s his fame, earning power, and the range of his works made Gershwin unique among American composers.
Established as a composer of talent and ambition, Gershwin maintained his place on Broadway by writing some of his most successful musicals, including Strike up the Band (1927; rev. 1930), Girl Crazy (1930) and Of Thee I Sing (1931), which won a Pulitzer Prize for drama. Apparently never happier than when performing his own music, he played Rhapsody in Blue with the Whiteman band during New York showings of The King of Jazz (1930), a revue-style film featuring Whiteman. He also continued his concerts and tours, and in 1934–5 he hosted and played on ‘Music by Gershwin’, a radio programme broadcast by CBS. Nor did he lose his touch as a songwriter. He and Ira signed a contract in June 1936 with RKO film studios, and by August they had moved to Hollywood. The songs they supplied for Shall we Dance? (1937), A Damsel in Distress (1937) and The Goldwyn Follies (1938) were among their best. In addition, Gershwin maintained his study and composition of concert music. While taking lessons with Joseph Schillinger (1932–6) he wrote the Cuban Overture (1932), a set of variations for piano and orchestra on the song I got rhythm (1914) and his magnum opus, Porgy and Bess (1935).
The idea of composing a full-length opera based on DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy about life among the black inhabitants of ‘Catfish Row’ in Charleston, South Carolina, first occurred to Gershwin when he read the book in 1926. After many delays, Heyward and the Gershwin brothers signed a contract in October 1933 with the Theatre Guild in New York, and the collaboration was under way. Gershwin began the score in February 1934; during most of the next summer he stayed in South Carolina, composing and absorbing local colour. By early 1935 the composition was finished, and Gershwin spent the next several months orchestrating the work. Billed as ‘an American folk opera’, Porgy and Bess opened in New York in October 1935 – in a Broadway theatre and not an opera house. It ran for 124 performances, not enough to recover the original investment.
Few events in the history of American music were more shocking than Gershwin’s death, seemingly on the threshold of new musical achievements. During the first half of 1937, although he complained of intermittent dizzy spells and feelings of emotional despondency, he continued to perform in public and to compose. On 9 July he fell suddenly into a coma. A brain tumour was diagnosed and emergency surgery performed, but on the morning of 11 July 1937 Gershwin died at the age of 38. Four days later, after memorial services in New York and Hollywood, he was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Throughout his professional life Gershwin was first and foremost a songwriter, composing hundreds of songs for Tin Pan Alley, the Broadway stage and Hollywood films, and submitting his work to the judgement of a mass audience. When Gershwin reached maturity around the end of World War I, American popular song was entering an era, the conventions of which, including verse-chorus form and an emphasis on romantic love, would remain standard for decades to come. In the interest of heightening emotional intensity, he and his contemporaries enriched the diatonic idiom they inherited with modulations, melodic chromaticism and unexpected plunges into remote harmonic territory, excursions quickly followed by returns to more familiar terrain, for phrases seldom exceeded eight bars in length. As Gershwin himself told an interviewer around 1929, ‘ordinary harmonies, rhythms, sequences, intervals and so on failed to satisfy my ear’. Composing at the piano, ‘I would spend hour upon hour trying to change them around so they would satisfy me’. He was also a leader among Broadway songwriters in exploring the possibilities of a rhythm that was at once relaxed, flexible and driving, showing the influence of black American dance.
Two favourites from Gershwin’s early years show his mastery of song types introduced by others: Swanee is in the square-cut, striding, declamatory style of George M. Cohan; and The Man I Love, in which the pervasiveness of one melodic motif is offset by shifting harmonies, employs a tonal idiom and a flexible beat similar to Jerome Kern’s earlier songs and to operetta. The Man I Love, a slow, romantic song of a type often called a ballad, was followed by others the choruses of which, dominated by melodic figures beginning on an offbeat, invite rubato: Someone to Watch Over Me (1926), But Not for Me (1930) and Embraceable You (1930). In each of these songs the title phrase or a variant of it appears as both a verbal refrain and as the chorus’s last words. All three, and all of the songs mentioned below, carry deft lyrics by Ira Gershwin, who once wrote wryly of his craft: ‘Since most of [my] lyrics … were arrived at by fitting words mosaically to music already composed, any resemblance to actual poetry, living or dead, is highly improbable’.
Although in songs like Strike up the band (1927), Of thee I sing (1931) and Love is sweeping the country (1931) Gershwin continued to write in the march-like style of Swanee, he is remembered more for songs like Fascinating Rhythm (1924) and I got rhythm (1930), both dominated by syncopation. I got rhythm was introduced by Ethel Merman in the musical Girl Crazy. Its pattern of circulation shows that once a popular song enters the public marketplace, there is no predicting how it will be used. From the early 1930s into the 1950s I got rhythm was widely performed and recorded by popular singers and pianists, by swing bands and ‘pops’ orchestra leaders, and by jazz performers. Moreover, its harmonic framework, separated from Gershwin’s melody and supplied with new ones under such titles as Cotton Tail, Little Benny, and Rhythm-a-ning, served as the most common 32-bar structure in the jazz tradition: the so-called ‘rhythm changes’.
In addition to rhythm songs and ballads, the Gershwin brothers also mastered a medium-tempo song style with a relaxed, swinging beat and a jazz-tinged idiom. Nice Work if You can Get It (1937) exemplifies this kind of song. The chorus’s A section features a strong contrast as the smooth, stepwise descent of the first four bars is followed by a sharp, syncopated upturn (ex.1a). After a bridge in the relative minor, climaxing on ‘Who could ask for anything more?’ (a quotation from I got rhythm), the last phrase of the AABA form brings an added twist: the singer, until now posing as an authority on successful romance, reveals in a two-bar phrase extension that he has been speaking more from imagination than experience. Here the music, after preparing for a cadence identical to those of the first and second sections, delivers one that is different, yet so offhandedly satisfying that it seems inevitable (ex.1b). The words keep emotion at an arm’s length, treating love as a rational game, and the song wears its craftsmanship as lightly as its narrator does his disappointment. Its general tone of civility and its inventive details of musical construction, absorbed by the relaxed insistence of its rhythm, combine to create one more sensibility in the Gershwin brothers’ exploration of romantic love.
Gershwin approached the concert world with assets that no other American composer of his generation enjoyed. A proven master of melody, he was also accustomed to having his works judged by audiences. Because his music consistently gained approval, he wrote with confidence that his talents outweighed his deficiencies of technique or experience. That confidence was borne out by his composing – in less than 12 years, while maintaining separate careers as a songwriter, pianist and conductor – four large-scale works of enduring appeal: the Rhapsody in Blue, the Concerto in F, An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess.
The melodies of Gershwin’s concert works are surely the chief reason for their appeal. They share with many of his popular songs a trait that helps to imprint them firmly on the listener’s memory: the opening material is consistently restated before contrasting material is heard. This is most conspicuous in the soaring, lyric, if somewhat square themes of Rhapsody in Blue, in the first movement of the Concerto and in An American in Paris, but it can also be found in more fragmentary material. The Rhapsody, for example, begins with two distinctive melodies, each of which first stands on its own, yet within a short time becomes the first phrase of a longer melody with an AABA design.
Some thematic phrases that Gershwin restates are themselves built from repetitions of smaller motifs. The Rachmaninov-like opening of the Concerto’s third movement, which is repeated four times in the first 38 bars, begins with a statement and restatement of a two-bar figure. The first 20 bars of An American in Paris contain a full statement and restatement of an eight-bar theme that presents the same one-bar motif six times. This technique is found not only in Gershwin’s themes but in introductory, transition and development sections as well. The Concerto starts with a 50-bar introduction in which all but six bars state or restate one of three figures; the transition out of the first thematic section of An American in Paris (rehearsal nos.20–23) is similarly structured. Although in these and other such passages phrase units may occasionally be three or five bars long, four-bar units are by far the most common, and their absence, as at the start of the Concerto’s third movement, creates a sense of disruption. Tending towards symmetry both in the pairing of opening phrases and in the reliance on parallel units of two, four and eight bars, Gershwin’s melodic materials seem designed to impose regularity and coherence even in the ear of an inexperienced listener.
If Gershwin’s melodic structures seem old-fashioned for a composer writing concert music in the 1920s and 30s, his tonal vocabulary sounds more up-to-date. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of Gershwin’s melodies is their reliance on blue notes. Sometimes these notes function as dissonances, as in one theme of the Rhapsody, where on strong beats they clash with the bass (ex.2). At other times they soften the melodic contour. In the Rhapsody’s opening theme, the presence of both major and minor 7ths in the second chord, and of both major and minor 3rds in the melody (bars 2–3) manifests in sound the aptness of the work’s title (ex.3). In the Concerto, blues-tinged tonality appears more subtly in the opening theme, which avoids the tonic chord until its tenth bar and then touches it only briefly, and on a weak beat, before moving on from the raised to the lowered 3rd of the tonic triad (ex.4). Occasionally the blues idiom provides a harmonic structure for Gershwin, as in the second of his three piano preludes on the 12-bar blues progression. That progression also serves as a reference in the Concerto’s second movement and in An American in Paris.
Because Gershwin’s concert works draw heavily on black American elements, it seems fitting that his largest composition, Porgy and Bess, should be a drama about black Americans. Nor is it surprising that the work’s melodic idiom – from Porgy’s identifying motif, to the opera’s main love duet, to the satirical songs of the drug peddler Sportin’ Life, to the choral numbers – is saturated with the inflected 3rds, 5ths and 7ths of black American popular music, and sometimes infused with its syncopated, driving rhythm. Although both opera critics and black American commentators have criticized Porgy and Bess for hybrid features, the work is full of moments that show Gershwin at his most convincing. Act 1 scene ii, for example, opens with a scene of mourning based on call and response. A soloist and chorus alternate, one impassioned solo call being answered by darkening series of chords, supporting a whole-tone descent through an octave, like the tolling of a bell. The harmonies are generated by unusual voice-leading: against five descending upper voices the bass line ascends. Parallel octaves between soprano and tenor, alto and baritone, lend an artless quality to the passage; yet only a sophisticated ear could have calculated the progression’s freshness (ex.5).
Gershwin’s approach to form in his concert works shows him as a practical composer who took care that technique did not overshadow expression. Rhapsody in Blue, reportedly written in three weeks, draws vitality from its juxtapositions of the piano and orchestra, and of jazz-like and classical materials. Its essence lies more in these contrasts, and in the strength of Gershwin’s melodies, than in its overall shape. The Concerto, a more ambitious undertaking, filled several months of Gershwin’s time and even received a trial performance before its delivery to Damrosch and the New York SO. Like the Rhapsody, it also uses sharp juxtapositions, but its integration through cyclic form and thematic transformation, both standard 19th-century techniques, reflects Gershwin’s study. More than the earlier Rhapsody, the Concerto forms a convincing whole, the impact of which derives as much from its entire structure as from its separate parts. In that way too the Concerto outdoes the tone poem An American in Paris, whose form was apparently inspired by a programme. For all of its élan, An American in Paris is more or less a medley of excellent tunes, varied and extended, and clad in attractive orchestral garb. Gershwin’s treatment of the main lyric theme recalls his own piano playing and the arrangements he published in his Song-Book. In each restatement of the melody, he varies the orchestration and the harmony, or the ‘responses’ to the theme’s opening ‘call’, but the melody itself remains intact.
The presence of Gershwin’s music at the end of the 20th century ensures him a place in American music history. Yet it is not quite the place claimed for him by some of his contemporaries. For them, his great achievement lay in bringing together musical spheres that had been considered separate: popular and classical traditions in his concert pieces, black American folk music and opera in Porgy and Bess. Such matters of taxonomy no longer seem as important; rather it is the sheer musical satisfaction that his compositions – songs and concert works alike – still provide for listeners, thanks in large part to the skill and commitment and artistry of the many musicians who perform them, that is his legacy.
Only published songs listed for stage and film scores; for fuller details see W. Rimler: A Gershwin Companion: a Critical Inventory and Discography, 1916–1984 (Ann Arbor, 1991) and E. Jablonski: Gershwin: a Biography (New York, 1987). Songs marked with an asterisk were completed by Kay Swift from Gershwin’s tune notebooks with lyrics provided by Ira Gershwin. Unless otherwise stated lyrics for all songs are by Ira Gershwin. Most of Gershwin’s music for the theatre was not orchestrated by the composer although he may have scored some works from the mid-1920s on. Most extant MSS are in DLC.
songs for shows by other composers
(all first performed in New York unless otherwise stated)
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Title, genre: song title (lyricist) |
Book author |
First performance |
Remarks |
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Half Past Eight, revue |
? E.P. Perkins |
Empire Theatre, Syracuse, NY, 9 Dec 1918 |
unpubd; closed out of town |
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La-La-Lucille!, musical comedy |
F. Jackson |
Henry Miller Theatre, 26 May 1919 |
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The Best of Everything (B.G. DeSylva, A.J. Jackson) |
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From Now On (DeSylva, Jackson) |
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Nobody But You (DeSylva, Jackson) |
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Somehow it seldom comes true (DeSylva, Jackson) |
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Tee-oodle-um-bum-bo (DeSylva, Jackson) |
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There’s more to the kiss than the sound (I. Caesar) |
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rev. of There’s more to the kiss than the x-x-x, 1919 [orig. listed under Songs for Shows by other composers] |
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Morris Gest’s Midnight Whirl, revue |
DeSylva, J.H. Mears |
Century Grove, Century Theatre, 27 Dec 1919 |
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Limehouse Nights (DeSylva, Mears) |
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Poppyland (DeSylva, Mears) |
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George White’s Scandals of 1920, revue |
A. Rice, G. White |
Globe Theatre, 7 June 1920 |
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Idle dreams (Jackson) |
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My Lady (Jackson) |
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On my Mind the Whole Night Long (Jackson) |
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Scandal Walk (Jackson) |
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The Songs of Long Ago (Jackson) |
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Tum on and tiss me (Jackson) |
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A Dangerous Maid, musical comedy |
C.W. Bell |
Atlantic City, NJ, 21 March 1921 |
closed out of town |
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Boy wanted (Arthur Francis [pseud. I. Gershwin]) |
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Dancing Shoes (Francis) |
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Just to Know you are Mine (Francis) |
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The Simple Life (Francis) |
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Some rain must fall (Francis) |
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George White’s Scandals of 1921, revue |
A. Baer, White |
Liberty Theatre, 11 July 1921 |
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Drifting Along with the Tide (Jackson) |
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I love you (Jackson) |
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She’s just a baby (Jackson) |
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South Sea Isles (Jackson) |
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Where East meets West (Jackson) |
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Blue Monday (opera ala Afro-American, DeSylva, 1) |
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Globe Theatre, 28 Aug 1922 |
unpubd; orchd W.H. Vodery; orig. part of George White’s Scandals of 1922, withdrawn after 1st perf. |
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retitled 135th Street |
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concert perf., Carnegie Hall, 29 Dec 1925 |
reorchd F. Grofé |
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George White’s Scandals of 1922, revue |
W.C. Fields, Rice, White |
Globe Theatre, 28 Aug 1922 |
orig. incl. Blue Monday, see above |
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Across the Sea (DeSylva, E.R. Goetz) |
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Argentina (DeSylva) |
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Cinderelatives (DeSylva) |
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I found a four leaf clover (DeSylva) |
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I’ll build a stairway to paradise (DeSylva, Francis [pseud. I. Gershwin]) |
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Oh, what she hangs out (DeSylva) |
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Where is the man of my dreams (DeSylva, Goetz) |
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Our Nell, ? musical comedy |
B. Hooker, A.E. Thomas |
Nora Bayes Theatre, 4 Dec 1922 |
incl. other songs by W. Daly |
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By and By (Hooker) |
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Innocent Ingenue Baby (Hooker) |
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collab. Daly |
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Walking Home with Angeline (Hooker) |
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The Rainbow, musical comedy |
A. de Courville, N. Scott, E. Wallace |
Empire Theatre, London, 3 April 1923 |
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Beneath the Eastern Moon (C. Grey) |
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Good-night, my dear (Grey) |
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In the Rain (Grey) |
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Innocent Lonesome Blue Baby (Grey, Hooker) |
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tune same as that of Innocent ingenue baby, 1922 |
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Moonlight in Versailles (Grey) |
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Oh! Nina (Grey) |
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Strut lady with me (Grey) |
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Sweetheart (I’m so glad that I met you) (Grey) |
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Sunday in London Town (Grey) |
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George White’s Scandals of 1923, revue |
W.K. Wells, White |
Globe Theatre, 18 June 1923 |
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Let’s be lonesome together (DeSylva, Goetz) |
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The Life of a Rose (DeSylva) |
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Lo-la-lo (DeSylva) |
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(On the beach at) How’ve-you-been (DeSylva) |
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There is nothing too good for you (DeSylva, Goetz) |
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Throw her in high! (De Sylva) |
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Where is she? (DeSylva) |
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You and I (DeSylva) |
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collab. J. Green |
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Sweet Little Devil, musical comedy |
F. Mandel, L. Schwab |
Astor Theatre, 21 Jan 1924 |
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Hey! Hey! Let ’er go! (DeSylva) |
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The Jijibo (DeSylva) |
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Mah-Jongg (DeSylva) |
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Pepita (DeSylva) |
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Someone believes in you (DeSylva) |
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Under a One-Man Top (DeSylva) |
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Virginia (DeSylva) |
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George White’s Scandals of 1924, revue |
Wells, White |
Apollo Theatre, 30 June 1924 |
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I need a garden (DeSylva) |
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Kongo Kate (DeSylva) |
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Mah-Jongg (DeSylva) |
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Night time in Araby (DeSylva) |
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Rose of Madrid (DeSylva) |
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Somebody loves me (DeSylva, MacDonald) |
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Tune in (to station J.O.Y.) (DeSylva) |
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Year after year (DeSylva) |
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Primrose, musical comedy |
G. Bolton, G. Grossmith |
Winter Garden Theatre, London, 11 Sep 1924 |
vs (1924) |
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Act 1: |
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Leaving Town While we May (D. Carter) |
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Till I Meet Someone Like You (Carter) |
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Isn’t it wonderful (I. Gershwin, Carter) |
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This is the life for a man (Carter) |
When Tobyis Out of Town (Carter) |
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Some Far-Away Someone (Gershwin, DeSylva) [tune same as that of At Half Past Seven, 1923] |
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The Mophams (Carter) |
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Can we do anything? (Gershwin, Carter) |
|
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|
Act 2: |
|
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|
Roses of France (Carter) |
|
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Four Little Sirens (Gershwin) |
|
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Berkeley Square and Kew (Carter) |
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Bow wanted (Gershwin, Carter) [rev. of Boy wanted, 1921] |
|
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Wait a bit, Susie (Gershwin, Carter) |
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Naughty Baby (Gershwin, Carter) |
|
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It is the fourteenth of July (Carter) |
|
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Act 3: |
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I make hay while the moon shines (Carter) |
|
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That New-Fangled Mother of Mine (Carter) |
|
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Beau Brummel (Carter) |
|
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Lady, be Good!, musical comedy |
Bolton, F. Thompson |
Liberty Theatre, 1 Dec 1924 |
|
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Fascinating Rhythm |
|
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The Half of it, Dearie, Blues |
|
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Hang on to me |
|
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The Man I Love |
|
|
cut before New York opening |
|
Little Jazz Bird |
|
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Oh, lady, be good! |
|
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So am I |
|
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|
Tell me More, musical comedy |
Thompson, Wells |
Gaiety Theatre, 13 April 1925 |
|
|
Baby! (DeSylva, I. Gershwin) |
|
|
|
|
Kickin’ the Clouds Away (DeSylva, I. Gershwin) |
|
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My Fair Lady (DeSylva, I. Gershwin) |
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Tell me more! (DeSylva, I. Gershwin) |
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Three Times a Day (DeSylva, I. Gershwin) |
|
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Why do I love you? (DeSylva, I. Gershwin) |
|
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Tip-toes, musical comedy |
Bolton, Thompson |
Liberty Theatre, 28 Dec 1925 |
|
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Looking for a Boy |
|
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Nice Baby! (Come to Papa!) |
|
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Nightie-Night |
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Sweet and Low-Down |
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That Certain Feeling |
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These Charming People |
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When do we dance? |
|
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|
Song of the Flame, operetta |
O. Hammerstein II, O. Harbach |
44th Street Theatre, 30 Dec 1925 |
incl. other songs by H. Stothart |
|
Cossack Love Song (Don’t forget me) (Hammerstein, Harbach) |
|
|
collab. Stothart |
|
Midnight Bells (Hammerstein, Harbach) |
|
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The Signal (Hammerstein, Harbach) |
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Song of the Flame (Hammerstein, Harbach) |
|
|
collab. Stothart |
|
Vodka (Hammerstein, Harbach) |
|
|
collab. Stothart |
|
You are you (Hammerstein, Harbach) |
|
|
collab. Stothart |
|
Oh, Kay!, musical comedy |
Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse |
Imperial Theatre, 8 Nov 1926 |
|
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Bride and Groom |
|
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Clap yo’ hands |
|
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Dear Little Girl (I hope you’ve missed me) |
|
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Do-Do-Do |
|
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Don’t ask |
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Fidgety Feet |
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Heaven on Earth (H. Dietz, I. Gershwin) |
|
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Maybe |
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Oh, Kay! (Dietz, I. Gershwin |
|
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Someone to Watch Over Me |
|
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The Woman’s Touch |
|
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|
Strike up the Band, musical [1st version] |
G.S. Kaufman |
Shubert Theatre, Philadelphia, 5 Sept 1927 |
closed out of town |
|
Military Dancing Drill |
|
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The Man I Love |
|
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Seventeen and Twenty-One |
|
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Strike up the band |
|
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Yankee Doodle Rhythm |
|
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Funny Face, musical comedy |
P.G. Smith, Thompson |
Alvin Theatre, 22 Nov 1927 |
|
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The Babbitt and the Bromide |
|
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Dance Alone with You |
|
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Funny Face |
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He loves and she loves |
|
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High Hat |
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In the Swim |
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Let’s kiss and make up |
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My One and Only |
|
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’S wonderful |
|
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The world is mine |
|
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Rosalie, musical comedy |
Bolton, W.A. McGuire |
New Amsterdam Theatre, 10 Jan 1928 |
incl. other songs by Romberg |
|
Ev'ry body knows I love somebody |
|
|
tune same as that of Dance alone with you, 1927 |
|
How long has this been going on? |
|
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Oh Gee! Oh Joy! (I. Gershwin, Wodehouse) |
|
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Say So! (I. Gershwin, Wodehouse) |
|
|
orig. composed for Oh, Kay! |
|
Show me the town |
|
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Treasure Girl, musical comedy |
V. Lawrence, Thompson |
Alvin Theatre, 8 Nov 1928 |
|
|
Feeling I’m Falling |
|
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Got a rainbow |
|
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|
I don’t think I’ll fall in love today |
|
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I’ve got a crush on you |
|
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K-ra-zy for You |
|
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Oh, so Nice |
|
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What are we here for? |
|
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|
Where’s the boy? Here’s the girl! |
|
|
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|
Show Girl, musical comedy |
McGuire, J.P. McEvoy |
Ziegfeld Theatre, 2 July 1929 |
|
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Do what you do! (I. Gershwin, G. Kahn) |
|
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Harlem Serenade (I. Gershwin, Kahn) |
|
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I must be home by twelve o’clock (I. Gershwin, Kahn) |
|
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Liza (All the clouds’ll roll away) (I. Gershwin, Kahn) |
|
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So are you! (I. Gershwin, Kahn) |
|
|
|
|
Strike up the Band musical [operetta; 2nd version] |
M. Ryskind, after Kaufman |
Times Square Theatre, 14 Jan 1930 |
vs (1930) |
|
Act 1: |
|
|
|
|
Fletcher's American Choc'late |
Choral Society |
|
|
|
I mean to say |
|
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|
A Typical Self-Made American |
|
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Soon |
|
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|
The Unofficial Spokesman |
|
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Three Cheers for the Union |
|
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If I Became the president |
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Hangin' Around with You |
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He know milk |
|
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Strike up the band |
|
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Act 2: |
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|
In the Rattle of the Battle |
|
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|
Mademoiselle in New Rochelle |
|
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|
I've got a crush on you |
|
|
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How about a boy like me? |
|
|
|
|
I want to be a war bride [cut from show and vs] |
|
|
|
|
Official Resume |
|
|
|
|
Ding Dong |
|
|
|
|
Girl Crazy, musical comedy |
Bolton, J. McGowan |
Alvin Theatre, 14 Oct 1930 |
vs (1954) |
|
Act 1: |
|
|
|
|
The Lonesome Cowboy |
|
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|
Bidin’ |
|
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|
My Time Could you use me? |
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Broncho Busters |
|
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|
Barbary Coast |
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Embraceable You |
|
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|
Goldfarb! |
|
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|
That’s I’m Sam and Delilah |
|
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|
I got rhythm |
|
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|
Act 2: |
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|
|
|
Land of the Gay Caballero |
|
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|
But Not for Me |
|
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|
|
Treat me rough |
|
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|
Boy! What love has done to me! |
|
|
|
|
When it’s Cactus Time in Arizona |
|
|
|
|
Of Thee I sing, musical [operetta] |
Kaufman, Ryskind |
Music Box Theatre, 26 Dec 1931 |
vs (1932); Pulitzer Prize, 1932 |
|
Act 1: |
|
|
|
|
Wintergreen for President |
|
|
|
|
Who is the lucky girl to be? |
|
|
|
|
Because, Because |
|
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|
Never was there a girl so fair |
|
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|
Some girls can bake a pie |
|
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|
Love is sweeping the country |
|
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|
Of thee I sing |
|
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|
Here’s a kiss for Cinderella |
|
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|
I was the most beautiful blossom |
|
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|
Act 2: |
|
|
|
|
Hello, Good Morning! |
|
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|
Who cares? |
|
|
|
|
Garçon, s’il vous plaît |
|
|
|
|
The Illegitimate Daughter |
|
|
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|
The Senator from Minnesota |
|
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|
Jilted I’m about to be a mother |
|
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|
Posterity is just around the corner |
|
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|
Trumpeter blow your golden horn |
|
|
|
|
Pardon my English, musical comedy |
H. Fields |
Majestic Theatre, 20 Jan 1933 |
|
|
Isn’t it a pity? |
|
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|
I’ve got to be there |
|
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|
Lorelei |
|
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|
Luckiest Man in the World |
|
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|
My Cousin in Milwaukee |
|
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|
So what? |
|
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|
Where you go I do |
|
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|
|
Let ’em Eat Cake, musical [operetta] |
Kaufman, Ryskind |
Imperial Theatre, 21 Oct 1933 |
sequel to Of Thee I Sing, 1931 |
|
Blue, Blue, Blue |
|
|
|
|
Let ’em eat cake |
|
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|
Mine |
|
|
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|
On and On and On |
|
|
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|
Union Square |
|
|
|
|
Porgy and Bess (American folk opera, I. Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, after play by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward: Porgy) |
DuBose Heyward |
Alvin Theatre, 10 Oct 1935 |
vs (1935) |
|
Act 1: |
|
|
|
|
Jasbo Brown Blues |
|
|
|
|
Summertime |
|
|
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|
A woman is a sometime thing |
|
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|
Here come de honey man |
|
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The Pass By Singin’ |
|
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Oh Little Stars |
|
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Gone, Gone, Gone |
|
|
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|
Overflow My man’s gone now |
|
|
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Leavin ‘for the promise’ lan’ |
|
|
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|
Act 2: |
|
|
|
|
It take a longpull to get there |
|
|
|
|
I got plenty o’ nuttin’ |
|
|
|
|
Buzzard Song |
|
|
|
|
Bess you is my woman |
|
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|
Oh, I can’t sit down |
|
|
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|
I ain’ got no shame |
|
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It ain’t necessarily so |
|
|
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|
What you want wid Bess? |
|
|
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|
Oh, doctor Jesus |
|
|
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|
Strawberry Woman |
|
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|
Crab Man |
|
|
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|
I loves you, Porgy |
|
|
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|
Oh, Hev’nly Father |
|
|
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|
Oh, de Lawd shake de heavens |
|
|
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|
Oh, dere’s somebody knockin’ at de do’ |
|
|
|
|
A red Headed Woman |
|
|
|
|
Act 3: |
|
|
|
|
Clara, Clara |
|
|
|
|
There’s a boat dat’s leavin’ soon for New York |
|
|
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|
Good mornin’, sistuh! |
|
|
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|
Oh, Bess, oh where’s my Bess |
|
|
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|
Oh Lawd, I’m on my way |
|
|
|
(all first performed in New York unless otherwise stated)
|
|
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|
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|
|
Song title (lyricist) |
Show title (genre, book author) |
First performance |
|
|
|
|
|
Making of a Girl (H. Atteridge) |
The Passing Show of 1916 (revue, H. Atteridge) |
Winter Garden Theatre, 22 June 1916 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by O. Motzan and S. Romberg; Making of a girl, collab. Romberg
|
|
|
|
You-Oo just You (Caesar) |
Hitchy-koo of 1918 (revue, G. MacDonough) |
Globe Theatre, 6 June 1918 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by E.R. Goetz
|
|
|
|
The Real American Folk Song (Francis [pseud. I. Gershwin]) |
Ladies First (musical comedy, H.B. Smith) |
Broadhurst Theatre, 24 Oct 1918 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by A.B. Sloane
|
|
|
|
Some Wonderful Sort of Someone (S. Greene) |
ibid. |
|
|
I was so young (you were so beautiful) (A. Bryan, Caesar) |
Good Morning, Judge (musical comedy, F. Thompson) |
Shubert Theatre, 6 Feb 1919 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by L. Monckton and H. Talbot
|
|
|
|
There’s more to the kiss than the x-x-x (Caesar) |
ibid. |
|
|
Some Wonderful Sort of Someone (Greene) |
The Lady in Red (musical comedy, A. Caldwell) |
Lyric Theatre, 12 May 1919 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by R. Winterberg; Some Wonderful Sort of Someone, rev. for this show
|
|
|
|
Something about Love (L. Paley) |
ibid. |
|
|
Remarks : later used in London production of Lady, be Good!, 1926
|
|
|
|
Come to the Moon (Paley, N. Wayburn) |
Capitol Revue (revue) |
Capitol Theatre, 24 Oct 1919 |
|
Remarks : music by many composers
|
|
|
|
Swanee (Caesar) |
ibid. |
|
|
We’re pals (Caesar) |
Dere Mabel (musical comedy, E. Streeter) |
Academy of Music, Baltimore, 2 Feb 1920 |
|
Remarks : music by many composers
|
|
|
|
Oo, how I love you to be loved by you (Paley) |
Ed Wynn’s Carnival (revue, E. Wynn) |
New Amsterdam Theatre, 5 April 1920 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by E. Wynn
|
|
|
|
Waiting for the Sun to Come Out (Francis [pseud. I. Gershwin]) |
The Sweetheart Shop (musical comedy, Caldwell) |
Knickerbocker Theatre, 31 Aug 1920 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by H. Felix
|
|
|
|
Lu Lu (A. Jackson) |
Broadway Brevities of 1920 (revue, G. Le Maire) |
Winter Garden Theatre, 29 Sept 1920 |
|
Remarks : music by many composers
|
|
|
|
Snowflakes (Jackson) |
ibid. |
|
|
Spanish love (Caesar) |
ibid. |
|
|
My Log-Cabin Home (Caesar, DeSylva) |
The Perfect Fool (musical comedy, Wynn) |
George M. Cohan Theatre, 7 Nov 1921 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by Wynn
|
|
|
|
No One Else but that Girl of Mine (Caesar) |
ibid. |
|
|
Someone (Francis [pseud. I. Gershwin]) |
For Goodness Sake (musical comedy, F. Jackson) |
Lyric Theatre, 20 Feb 1922 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by W. Daly and P. Lannin
|
|
|
|
Tra-la-la (Francis) |
ibid. |
|
|
Do it again! (DeSylva) |
The French Doll (play with music, A.E. Thomas) |
Lyceum Theatre, 20 Feb 1922 |
|
Remarks : music by many composers
|
|
|
|
The Yankee Doodle Blues (Caesar, DeSylva) |
Spice of 1922 (revue, J. Lait) |
Winter Garden Theatre, 6 July 1922 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by J.F. Hanley
|
|
|
|
That American Boy of Mine (Caesar) |
The Dancing Girl (musical comedy, Atteridge, Caesar) |
Winter Garden Theatre, 24 Jan 1923 |
|
Remarks : music mainly by Romberg
|
|
|
|
I won’t say I will but I won’t say I won’t (DeSylva, Francis [pseud. I. Gershwin]) |
Little Miss Bluebeard (play with music, A. Hopwood) |
Lyceum Theatre, 28 Aug 1923 |
|
Remarks : music by many composers
|
|
|
|
At Half Past Seven (DeSylva) |
Nifties of 1923 (revue, S. Bernard, W. Collier) |
Fulton Theatre, 25 Sept 1923 |
|
Remarks : music by many composers
|
|
|
|
Nashville Nightingale (Caesar) |
ibid. |
|
|
That Lost Barber Shop Chord |
Americana (revue, McEvoy) |
Belmont Theatre, 26 July 1926 |
|
Remarks : music by many composers
|
|
|
|
By Strauss |
The Show is On (revue, D. Freedman, M. Hart) |
Winter Garden Theatre, 25 Dec 1936 |
|
Remarks : music by many composers
|
|
|
|
Gershwin also contributed songs to the revues Piccadilly to Broadway (1920), Blue Eyes (1921), and Selwyn’s Snapshots (1921), although none of these was published. |
|
|
(musicals unless otherwise stated)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Film, title, song title (lyricist) |
Date, production company |
Remarks |
|
|
|
|
|
The Sunshine Trail, silent film |
1923, Thomas H. Ince |
music as acc. for film, perf. by pf/ens |
|
The Sunshine Trail (Francis [pseud. I. Gershwin]) |
|
|
|
Delicious |
3 Dec 1931, Fox |
screenplay by Bolton and S. Levien |
|
Blah, blah, blah |
|
|
|
Delishious |
|
|
|
Katinkitschka |
|
|
|
Somebody from Somewhere |
|
|
|
Shall we Dance |
7 May 1937, RKO Radio |
screenplay by A. Scott and E. Pagano |
|
(I’ve got) Beginner’s Luck |
|
|
|
Let’s call the whole thing off |
|
|
|
Shall we dance? |
|
|
|
Slap that bass |
|
|
|
They all laughed |
|
|
|
They can’t take that away from me |
|
|
|
A Damsel in Distress |
19 Nov 1937, RKO Radio |
screenplay by S.K. Lauren, E. Pagano, and Wodehouse |
|
A Foggy Day |
|
|
|
I can’t be bothered now |
|
|
|
The Jolly Tar and the Milk Maid |
|
solo song; also choral arr. by Gershwin |
|
Nice work if you can get it |
|
|
|
Sing of Spring |
|
choral arr. by Gershwin |
|
Stiff Upper Lip |
|
|
|
Things are looking up |
|
|
|
The Goldwyn Follies, revue |
23 Feb 1938, Goldwyn-United Artists |
screenplay by B. Hecht; Gershwin died during filming, Vernon Duke completed Gershwin’s songs and supplied others |
|
I love to rhyme |
|
|
|
I was doing all right |
|
|
|
Love is here to stay |
|
|
|
Love walked in |
|
|
|
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim |
1946, 20th Century-Fox |
screenplay by G. Seaton |
|
*Aren’t you kind of glad we did? |
|
|
|
*The Back Bay Polka |
|
|
|
*Changing my Tune |
|
|
|
*For You, for Me, for Evermore |
|
|
|
*One, two, three |
|
|
|
Kiss me, stupid |
1964, United Artists |
screenplay by B. Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond |
|
*All the Livelong Day (and the Long, Long Night) |
|
|
|
*I’m a poached egg |
|
|
|
*Sophia |
|
|
(listed by year of first performance)
|
1916: When you want ’em, you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em (M. Roth) |
|
1919: The Love of a Wife (A.J. Jackson, B.G. DeSylva); O Land of Mine, America (M.E. Rourke) |
|
1920: Yan-Kee (Caesar) |
|
1921: Dixie Rose (Caesar, DeSylva); In the Heart of a Geisha (F. Fisher); Swanee Rose (Caesar, DeSylva) [tune same as that of Dixie Rose]; Tomale (I’m hot for you) (DeSylva) |
|
1925: Harlem River Chanty [orig. for 4vv chorus, composed for Tip-toes, but not used]; It’s a great little world! [orig. composed for Tip-toes, but not used]; Murderous Monty (and Light-Fingered Jane) (D. Carter) [composed for London production of Tell Me More, 1925] |
|
1926: I’d rather charleston (Carter) [composed for London production of Lady, be Good!, 1926] |
|
1928: Beautiful gypsy [orig. composed for Rosalie, but not used; tune same as that of Wait a bit, Susie, 1924]; Rosalie [orig. composed for Rosalie, but not used] |
|
1929: Feeling Sentimental [orig. composed for Show Girl, but not used]; In the Mandarin’s Orchid Garden |
|
1931: Mischa, Yascha, Toscha, Sascha [orig. composed for Delicious, but not used] |
|
1932: You’ve got what gets me [composed for film version of Girl Crazy, RKO 1932] |
|
1933: Till Then |
|
1936: King of Swing (A. Stillman); Strike up the band for U.C.L.A. [tune same as Strike up the band, 1927, 1930] |
|
1937: Hi-Ho! [orig. composed for Shall we Dance, but not used] |
|
1938: Just Another Rhumba [orig. composed for The Goldwyn Follies, but not used]; *Dawn of a New Day |
|
Rhapsody in Blue, pf, jazz band, 1924, orchd Grofé, rev. orch for full orch by Grofé, 1926 [Gershwin’s orig. 2-pf score unpubd; solo pf and 2-pf pubd versions not Gershwin’s arrs.] |
|
Concerto in F, pf, orch, 1925 [orig. pubd as 2-pf score; pubd orch version rev. F. Campbell-Watson] |
|
An American in Paris, tone poem, 1928 [Gershwin’s orig. 2-pf score unpubd; pubd orch version arr. F. Campbell-Watson, pubd 2-pf version rev. G. Stone; solo pf version arr. W. Daly] |
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Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, 1931 [orig. MS unpubd, pubd rev. version by R. McBride, orig. composed as Manhattan Rhapsody for Delicious] |
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Cuban Overture, orig. entitled Rumba, 1932 |
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‘I got Rhythm’ Variations, pf, orch, 1934 [orig. MS unpubd, pubd rev. version by W.C. Schoenfeld] |
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Catfish Row: Suite from Porgy and Bess, 1935–6, unpubd |
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Chbr: Lullaby, str qt, c1919–20; Short Story, vn, pf, c1923–5 [orig. Novelettes, pf, c1919, 1923, arr. S. Dushkin for vn, pf, 1925] |
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Pf: Rialto Ripples, c1916, collab. W. Donaldson; Three-Quarter Blues (Irish Waltz), early 1920s; [3] Preludes, c1923–6; Impromptu in 2 Keys, c1924; Swiss Miss, 1926 [orig. song in Lady, Be Good!, 1924]; Merry Andrew, by 1928 [orig. dance piece in Rosalie, 1928]; George Gershwin’s Song-Book, 18 arrs. of refrains from Gershwin’s songs, 1932; 2 Waltzes, C, by 1933 [orig. as 2-pf piece in Pardon my English, 1933, arr. pf solo by I. Gershwin, S. Chaplin]; Promenade, by 1937 [orig. as interlude, Walking the Dog, in Shall we Dance, 2 pf, chbr orch, 1937, transcr. pf solo by H. Borne]; additional works edited and pubd by A. Zizzo incl.: 3 Preludes, pf [from MSS]; Suite, pf [from Blue Monday]; various MSS frags. |
(dates refer to year of first performance)
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Across the Sea, 1922; A Foggy Day, 1937; All the Livelong Day (and the Long, Long Night), 1964; A Red Headed Woman, 1935; Aren’t you kind of glad we did?, 1946; Argentina, 1922; At Half Past Seven, 1923; A Typical Self-Made American, 1930; A woman is a sometime thing, 1935; The Babbitt and the Bromide, 1927; Baby!, 1925; The Back Bay Polka, 1946; Barbary Coast, 1930; Beau Brummel, 1924; Beautiful Gypsy, 1928; Because, Because, 1931; Beneath the Eastern Moon, 1923; Berkeley Square and Kew, 1924; Bess you is my woman, 1935; The Best of Everything, 1919; Bidin’ my Time, 1930; Blah, Blah, Blah, 1931 |
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Blue, Blue, Blue, 1933; Boy wanted, 1921, 1924; Boy! What love has done to me!, 1930; Bride and Groom, 1926; Broncho Busters, 1930; But Not for Me, 1930; Buzzard Song, 1935; By and By, 1922; By Strauss, 1936; Can we do anything?, 1924; Changing my Tune, 1946; Cinderelatives, 1922; Clap yo’ hands, 1926; Clara, Clara, 1935; Come to the moon, 1919; Cossack Love Song (Don’t forget me), 1925; Could you use me?, 1930; Crab Man, 1935; Dance Alone with You, 1927; Dancing Shoes, 1921; Dawn of a New Day, 1938; Dear Little Girl (I hope you’ve missed me), 1926; Delishious, 1931; Ding Dong, 1930 |
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Dixie Rose, 1921; Do-Do-Do, 1926; Do it again!, 1922; Don't ask, 1926; Do what you do!, 1929; Drifting Along with the Tide, 1921; Embraceable You, 1930; Ev’ry body knows I love somebody, 1928; Fascinating Rhythm, 1924; Feeling I’m Falling, 1928; Feeling Sentimental, 1929; Fidgety feet, 1926; Fletcher’s American Choc’late Choral Society, 1930; For you, for me, for evermore, 1946; Four Little Sirens, 1924; From Now On, 1919; Funny Face, 1927; Garçon, s’il vous plaît, 1931; Goldfarb! That's I'm, 1930; Gone, Gone, Gone, 1935; Good mornin’, sistuh!, 1935; Good-night, my dear, 1923; Got a rainbow, 1928; The Half of it, Dearie, Blues, 1924; Hangin’ Around with You, 1930 |
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Hang on to me, 1924; Harlem River Chanty, 1925; Harlem Serenade, 1929; Heaven on Earth, 1926; He knows milk, 1930; Hello, good morning, 1931; He loves and she loves, 1927; Here come de honey man, 1935; Here’s a kiss for Cinderella, 1931; Hey! Hey! Let ’er go!, 1924; High Hat, 1927; Hi-ho!, 1937; How about a boy like me?, 1930; How long has this been going on?, 1927, 1928; I ain’ got no shame, 1935; I can’t be bothered now, 1937; Idle Dreams, 1920; I don’t think I’ll fall in love today, 1928; I’d rather charleston, 1926; If I Become the President, 1930; I found a four leaf clover, 1922; I got plenty o’ nuttin’, 1935; I got rhythm, 1930 |
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I’ll build a stairway to paradise, 1922; The Illegitimate Daughter, 1931; I loves you, Porgy, 1935; I love to rhyme, 1938; I love you, 1921; I’m about to be a mother, 1931; I make hay while the moon shines, 1924; I’m a poached egg, 1964; I mean to say, 1930; I must be home by twelve o’clock, 1929; I need a garden, 1924; Innocent Ingenue Baby, 1922; Innocent Lonesome Blue Baby, 1923; In the Heart of a Geisha, 1921; In the Mandarin’s Orchid Garden, 1929; In the Rain, 1923; In the Rattle of the Battle, 1930; In the swim, 1923; Isn’t it a pity?, 1933; Isn’t it wonderful, 1924; It ain’t necessarily so, 1935; It is the fourteenth of July, 1924; It’s a great little world!, 1925 |
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It take a long pull to get there, 1935; I’ve got a crush on you, 1928, 1930; I’ve got beginner’s luck, 1937; I’ve got to be there, 1933; I want to be a war bride, 1930; I was doing all right, 1938; I was so young (you were so beautiful), 1919; I was the most beautiful blossom, 1931; I won’t say I will but I won’t say I won’t, 1923; Jasbo Brown Blues, 1935; The Jijibo, 1924; Jilted, 1931; The Jolly Tar and the Milk Maid, 1937; Just Another Rhumba, 1938; Just to Know You are Mine, 1921; Katinkitschka, 1931; Kickin’ the Clouds Away, 1925 |
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King of swing, 1936; Kongo Kate, 1924; K-ra-zy for You, 1928; Land of the Gay Caballero, 1930; Leavin’ for the Promise’ Lan’, 1935; Leaving Town While we May, 1924; Let ’em eat cake, 1933; Let’s be lonesome together, 1923; Let’s call the whole thing off, 1937; Let’s kiss and make up, 1927; The Life of a Rose, 1923; Limehouse Nights, 1919; Little Jazz Bird, 1924; Liza (All the clouds’ll roll away), 1929; Lo-La-Lo, 1923; The Lonesome Cowboy, 1930; Looking for a Boy, 1925; Lorelei, 1933; Love is here to stay, 1938; Love is sweeping the country, 1931; The love of a wife, 1919; Love walked in, 1938 |
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Luckiest man in the world, 1933; Lu Lu, 1920; Mademoiselle in New Rochelle, 1930; Mah-Jongg, 1924; Making of a Girl, 1916; The Man I love, 1924, 1927; Maybe, 1926; Midnight Bells, 1925; Military Dancing Drill, 1927; Mine, 1933; Mischa, Yascha, Toscha, Sascha, 1931; Moonlight in Versailles, 1923; The Mophams, 1924; Murderous Monty (and Light-Fingered Jane), 1925; My Cousin in Milwaukee, 1933; My Fair Lady, 1925; My Lady, 1920; My Log-Cabin Home, 1921; My man’s gone now, 1935 |
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My One and Only, 1927; Nashville Nightingale, 1923; Naughty Baby, 1924; Never was there a girl so fair, 1931; Nice Baby! (Come to papa!), 1925; Nice work if you can get it, 1937; Nightie-Night, 1925; Night time in Araby, 1924; Nobody but You, 1919; No One Else but that Girl of Mine, 1921; Official Resume, 1930; Of thee I sing, 1931; Oh, Bess, oh where’s my Bess, 1935; Oh, de Lawd shake de heavens, 1935; Oh, dere’s somebody knockin’ at de do’, 1935; Oh, Doctor Jesus, 1935; Oh Gee! Oh Joy!, 1928; Oh, Hev’nly Father, 1935; Oh, I can’t sit down, 1935 |
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Oh, Kay!, 1926; Oh, lady, be good!, 1924; Oh Lawd, I’m on my way, 1935; Oh Little Stars, 1935; Oh! Nina, 1923; Oh, so Nice, 1928; Oh, What she Hangs Out, 1922; O Land of Mine, America, 1919; On and On and On, 1933; One, Two, Three, 1946; On My Mind the Whole Night Long, 1920; On the Beach at How’ve-you-been, 1923; Oo, how I love to be loved by you, 1920; Overflow, 1935; Pepita, 1924; Poppyland, 1919; Posterity is just around the corner, 1931; The Real American Folk Song, 1918; Rosalie, 1928; Rose of Madrid, 1924; Roses of France, 1924 |
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Sam and Delilah, 1930; Say so!, 1928; Scandal Walk, 1920; The Senator from Minnesota, 1931; Seventeen and Twenty-One, 1927; Shall we dance?, 1937; She’s just a baby, 1921; Show me the town, 1926; The Signal, 1925; The Simple Life, 1921; Site of Spring, 1937; Slap that bass, 1937; Snowflakes, 1920; So am I, 1924; So are you!, 1929; Somebody from Somewhere, 1931; Somebody loves me, 1924; Some Far-Away Someone, 1924; Some girls can bake a pie, 1931; Somehow it seldom comes true, 1919; Someone, 1922; Someone believes in you, 1924; Someone to watch over me, 1926 |
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Some rain must fall, 1921; Something about love, 1919, 1926; Some wonderful sort of someone, 1918, rev. 1919; Song of the Flame, 1925; The Songs of Long Ago, 1920; Soon, 1930; Sophia, 1964; South Sea Isles, 1921; So what?, 1933; Spanish love, 1920; Stiff Upper Lip, 1937; Strawberry Woman, 1935; Strike up the band, 1927, 1930; Strike up the band for U.C.L.A., 1936; Strut lady with me, 1923; Summertime, 1935; Sunday in London town, 1923; The Sunshine Trail, 1923; Swanee, 1919 |
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Swanee Rose, 1921; Sweet and Low-Down, 1925; Sweetheart (I’m so glad that I met you), 1923; ’S wonderful, 1927; Tee-oodle-um-bum-bo, 1919; Tell me more!, 1925; That American Boy of Mine, 1923; That Certain Feeling, 1925; That Lost Barber Shop Chord, 1926; That New-Fangled Mother of Mine, 1924; There is nothing too good for you, 1923; There’s a boat dat’s leavin’ soon for New York, 1935; There’s more to the kiss than the x-x-x, 1919; These Charming People, 1925; They all laughed, 1937 |
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They can’t take that away from me, 1937; They pass by singin’, 1935; Things are looking up, 1937; This is the life for a man, 1924; Three cheers for the Union!, 1930; Three Times a Day, 1925; Throw her in high!, 1923; Till I Meet Someone like You, 1924; Till Then, 1933; Tomale (I’m hot for you), 1921; Tra-la-la, 1922; Treat me rough, 1930; Trumpeter blow your golden horn, 1931; Tum on and tiss me, 1920; Tune in (to Station J. O. Y.), 1924; Under a One-Man Top, 1924; Union Square, 1933; The Unofficial Spokesman, 1930; Virginia, 1924; Vodka, 1925; Wait a bit, Susie, 1924; Waiting for the Sun to Come Out, 1920 |
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Walking Home with Angeline, 1922; We’re pals, 1920; What are we here for?, 1928; What you want wid Bess?, 1935; When do we dance?, 1925; When it’s Cactus Time in Arizona, 1930; When Toby is Out of Town, 1924; When you want ’em, you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em, 1916; Where East meets West, 1921; Where is she?, 1923; Where is the man of my dreams, 1922; Where’s the boy? Here’s the girl!, 1928; Where you go I go, 1933; Who cares?, 1931; Who is the lucky girl to be?, 1931; Why do I love you?, 1925; Wintergreen for President, 1931; The Woman's Touch, 1926; The world is mine, 1927 |
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Yan-Kee, 1920; The Yankee Doodle Blues, 1922; Yankee Doodle Rhythm, 1927, 1928; Year after Year, 1924; You and I, 1923; You are you, 1925; You-Oo just You, 1918; You’ve got what gets me, 1932 |
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Principal publishers: Chappell, New World |
A Catalogue of the Exhibition Gershwin: George the Music: Ira the Words (New York, 1968)
C.M. Schwartz: George Gershwin: a Selective Bibliography and Discography, Bibliographies in American Music, no.1 (Detroit, 1974)
W. Rimler: A Gershwin Companion: a Critical Inventory and Discography, 1916–1984 (Ann Arbor, 1991)
N. Carnovale: George Gershwin: a Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT, 2000)
GroveA (R. Crawford, W. Schneider) [incl. further bibliography]
I. Goldberg: George Gershwin: a Study in American Music (New York, 1931, rev. and enlarged 2/1958)
M. Armitage, ed.: George Gershwin (New York, 1938; repr. 1995 with a new introduction by E. Jablonski)
V. Duke: ‘Gershwin, Shillinger and Dukelsky’, MQ, xxxiii (1947), 102–15
D. Ewen: A Journey to Greatness (New York, 1956; rev. and enlarged 2/1970/R as George Gershwin: his Journey to Greatness)
M. Armitage: George Gershwin: Man and Legend (New York, 1958/R)
E. Jablonski and L.D. Stewart: The Gershwin Years (Garden City, NY, 1958, rev. 2/1973)
C.M. Schwartz: Gershwin: his Life and Music (Indianapolis, IN, 1973) [incl. catalogue of works and bibliography]
E. Jablonski: ‘Gershwin at 80: Observations, Discographical and Otherwise, on the 80th Anniversary of the Birth of George Gershwin, American Composer’, American Record Guide, xli (1977–8), no.11, pp.6–12, 58 only; no.12, pp.8–12, 57–9
D. Jeambar: George Gershwin (Paris, 1982)
E. Jablonski: Gershwin: a Biography, Illustrated (New York, 1987)
E. Jablonski: Gershwin Remembered (Portland, OR, 1992)
D. Rosenberg: Fascinating Rhythm: the Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin (New York, 1991)
J. Peyser: The Memory of All That (New York, 1993)
G. Gershwin: ‘The Relation of Jazz to American Music’, American Composers on American Music, ed. H. Cowell (Palo Alto, CA, 1933/R)
Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions [Library of Congress], iv (1946–7), 65–6; xi (1953–4), 15–26; xii (1954–5), 47 only; xiv (1956–7), 13 only; xvi (1958–9), 17 only; xvii (1959–60), 23–4; xviii (1960–61), 23 only; xix (1961–2), 22–3; xx (1962–3), 34–5, 60–61; Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, xxi (1963–4), 23–4, 45 only; xxiii (1965–6), 41, 44–5; xxv (1967–8), 53–5, 75, 78 only; xxvi (1968–9), 22, 37 only; xxvii (1969–70), 53, 77 only; xxviii (1970–71), 46, 67–8; xxix (1971–2), 49, 61, 64, 75 only; xxx (1972–3), 50 only; xxxi (1973–4), 32, 50, 57, 62–3 [reports on acquisitions by E.N. Waters and others]
F.C. Campbell: ‘Some Manuscripts of George Gershwin’, Manuscripts, vi (1953–4), 66–75
F.C. Campbell: ‘The Musical Scores of George Gershwin’, Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions [Library of Congress], xi (1953–4), 127–39
L. Bernstein: ‘Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune’, Atlantic Monthly, cxcv/4 (1955), 39–42; repr. in The Joy of Music (New York, 1959), 52–64
H. Keller: ‘Rhythm: Gershwin and Stravinsky’, Score and I.M.A. Magazine, no.20 (1957), 19–31
H. Levine: ‘Gershwin, Handy and the Blues’, Clavier, ix/7 (1970), 10–20
R. Crawford: ‘It ain't Necessarily Soul: Gershwin's Porgy and Bess as Symbol’, Yearbook for Inter-American Musical Research, viii (1972), 17–38
A. Wilder: ‘George Gershwin (1898–1937)’, American Popular Song (New York, 1972), 121–62
R. Crawford: ‘Gershwin's Reputation: a Note on Porgy and Bess’, MQ, lxv (1979), 257–64
W.D. Shirley: ‘Reconciliation on Catfish Row: Bess, Serena and the Short Score of Porgy and Bess’, Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, xxxviii (1980–81), 144–65
L. Starr: ‘Toward a Reevaluation of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess’, American Music, ii/2 (1984), 25–37
S.E. Gilbert: ‘Gershwin's Art of Counterpoint’, MQ, lxx (1984), 423–56
W.D. Shirley: ‘Scoring the Concerto in F: George Gershwin's First Orchestration’, American Music, iii (1985), 277–98
R. Wyatt: ‘The Seven Jazz Preludes of George Gershwin’, American Music, vii (1989), 68–85
H. Alpert: The Life and Times of Porgy and Bess (New York, 1990)
C. Hamm: ‘A Blues for the Ages’, A Celebration of American Music, ed. R. Crawford, R.A. Lott and C.J. Oja (Ann Arbor, 1990), 346–55
R. Crawford: ‘George Gershwin's “I Got Rhythm” (1930)’, America's Musical Landscape (Berkeley, CA, 1993), 213–36
P. Nauert: ‘Theory and Practice in Porgy and Bess: the Gershwin-Schillinger Connection’, MQ, lxxviii (1994), 9–33
C.J. Oja: ‘Gershwin and American Modernists of the 1920s’, MQ, lxxviii (1994), 646–68
A. Forte: ‘Ballads of George Gershwin’, The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era: 1924–1950 (Princeton, NJ, 1995), 147–76
S.E. Gilbert: The Music of Gershwin (New Haven, CT, 1995)
C. Hamm: ‘Towards a New Reading of Gershwin’, Putting Popular Music in its Place (Cambridge and New York, 1995), 306–24
G. Block: ‘Porgy and Bess: Broadway Opera’, Enchanted Evenings: the Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim (New York and Oxford, 1997), 60–84, 328–9
D. Schiff: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (New York, 1997)
R. Crawford: ‘Rethinking the Rhapsody’, ISAM News Letter, xxviii/1 (1998), 1–2, 15
W.J. Schneider, ed.: The Gershwin Style: New Looks at the Music of George Gershwin (New York, 1999)