Jazz Changes

Songs from 1924 to 1937

George Gershwin

George Gershwin wrote these nine songs for the stage and screen between 1924 and 1937, most of them with his brother Ira writing the words. They come from the shows Lady, Be Good, Funny Face and Girl Crazy, the opera Porgy and Bess, and two Fred Astaire films. The page follows them from the theater into jazz, as singers, big bands, small groups and piano trios keep recording them through to 2025.

Through the years

  1. 1920s

    George and Ira Gershwin write Oh, Lady Be Good! and The Man I Love for the 1924 musical Lady, Be Good, though the show drops The Man I Love. 'S Wonderful comes from Funny Face in 1927, and Frank Crumit records it four weeks before the show opens. His record reaches fifth place on the pop charts in January 1928.

    Frank Crumit 'S Wonderful · 1927
  2. 1930s

    Girl Crazy is the 1930 show behind I Got Rhythm, and its pit band, Red Nichols and His Orchestra, records the song that October. Billie Holiday sings Summertime like a blues in 1936 and They Can't Take That Away from Me in 1937, the year Fred Astaire records that song and A Foggy Day from his films. Lester Young and Count Basie play Oh, Lady Be Good! in 1936 and build a new tune over I Got Rhythm in 1939.

    Red Nichols I Got Rhythm · 1930Stéphane Grappelly and His Hot Four I Got Rhythm · 1935Jones-Smith Incorporated Oh, Lady Be Good! · 1936Billie Holiday Summertime · 1936Fred Astaire with Ray Noble A Foggy Day · 1937Fred Astaire with Johnny Green They Can't Take That Away from Me · 1937Billie Holiday They Can't Take That Away from Me · 1937Slim & Slam Oh, Lady Be Good! · 1938
    2 more
    Count Basie's Kansas City Seven I Got Rhythm · 1939Sidney Bechet Quintet Summertime · 1939
  3. 1940s

    The songs move to concerts and studios. Billie Holiday records Embraceable You in 1944, Don Byas and Slam Stewart play I Got Rhythm as a live duet in 1945, and Charlie Parker plays Oh, Lady Be Good! with Lester Young at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in 1946. Ella Fitzgerald scats on Oh, Lady Be Good! in 1947, Parker and Miles Davis record Embraceable You that year, and Parker plays Summertime in front of strings in 1949.

    Billie Holiday and Eddie Heywood Embraceable You · 1944Don Byas and Slam Stewart I Got Rhythm · 1945The Nat "King" Cole Trio I Got Rhythm · 1946Charlie Parker with Jazz at the Philharmonic Oh, Lady Be Good! · 1946Charlie Parker Quintet Embraceable You · 1947Ella Fitzgerald with Bob Haggart Oh, Lady Be Good! · 1947Charlie Parker with Strings Summertime · 1949
  4. 1950s

    All nine songs are recorded in this decade. Frank Sinatra sings with Nelson Riddle in 1953, and Ella Fitzgerald sings with Louis Armstrong in 1956 and records her Gershwin Song Book in 1959. Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Red Garland, Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie play them instrumentally, and Miles Davis plays with Sonny Rollins in 1954 and with Gil Evans's orchestra in 1958.

    Ella Fitzgerald with Ellis Larkins at the Piano But Not for Me · 1950Charlie Parker They Can't Take That Away from Me · 1950Oscar Peterson Trio A Foggy Day · 1952Oscar Peterson Trio Oh, Lady Be Good! · 1952Fred Astaire 'S Wonderful · 1952The Oscar Peterson Trio They Can't Take That Away from Me · 1952Frank Sinatra A Foggy Day · 1953Dizzy Gillespie Sextet 'S Wonderful · 1953
    28 more
    Frank Sinatra They Can't Take That Away from Me · 1953Chet Baker Quartet But Not for Me · 1954Miles Davis But Not for Me · 1954Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown Sextet Embraceable You · 1954Art Tatum, Benny Carter and Louis Bellson 'S Wonderful · 1954Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown 'S Wonderful · 1954Anita O'Day The Man I Love · 1954Miles Davis All Stars The Man I Love · 1954The Hampton Hawes Trio I Got Rhythm · 1955Erroll Garner They Can't Take That Away from Me · 1955Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong A Foggy Day · 1956The Red Garland Trio A Foggy Day · 1956Art Tatum / Buddy DeFranco Quartet A Foggy Day · 1956The Charlie Mingus Jazz Workshop A Foggy Day · 1956Kenny Burrell But Not for Me · 1956Sonny Criss Quartet The Man I Love · 1956Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong They Can't Take That Away from Me · 1956The Red Garland Trio But Not for Me · 1957Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald Summertime · 1957Sarah Vaughan The Man I Love · 1957Ahmad Jamal Trio But Not for Me · 1958The Red Garland Trio plus Ray Barretto 'S Wonderful · 1958Miles Davis with Gil Evans Summertime · 1958Ella Fitzgerald with Nelson Riddle's Orchestra I Got Rhythm · 1959Kenny Burrell with Art Blakey Oh, Lady Be Good! · 1959Ella Fitzgerald with Nelson Riddle's Orchestra 'S Wonderful · 1959Ella Fitzgerald The Man I Love · 1959Bob Brookmeyer and Bill Evans The Man I Love · 1959
  5. 1960s

    Players stretch the songs out and push them further from the stage. John Coltrane's quartet records But Not for Me and a nearly twelve-minute Summertime in 1960, the year Ornette Coleman's quartet records Embraceable You. Bill Evans plays Embraceable You live at Montreux in 1968, and Janis Joplin sings Summertime with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

    John Coltrane Quartet But Not for Me · 1960Ornette Coleman Quartet Embraceable You · 1960John Coltrane Summertime · 1960Bill Evans Trio Embraceable You · 1968Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin Summertime · 1968
  6. 1970s

    Zoot Sims makes an all-Gershwin album for Pablo in 1975, produced by Norman Granz, with Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, George Mraz and Grady Tate. It holds Embraceable You, I Got Rhythm, Oh, Lady Be Good!, The Man I Love and They Can't Take That Away from Me. Phineas Newborn plays The Man I Love in a trio with Ray Brown and Jimmie Smith in 1976.

    Zoot Sims Embraceable You · 1975Zoot Sims with Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, George Mraz and Grady Tate I Got Rhythm · 1975Zoot Sims Oh, Lady Be Good! · 1975Zoot Sims and the Gershwin Brothers The Man I Love · 1975Zoot Sims They Can't Take That Away from Me · 1975The Phineas Newborn Trio The Man I Love · 1976
  7. 1980s

    Joe Pass plays Embraceable You alone on guitar in Hollywood in November 1981, for the album Ira, George and Joe, which also holds his A Foggy Day. Jim Hall and Ron Carter play Embraceable You as a live guitar and bass duo in New York in 1982. In 1988 Pass plays They Can't Take That Away from Me alone in Berkeley.

    Joe Pass Embraceable You · 1981
  8. 1990s

    Tommy Flanagan's trio names a 1993 album after Oh, Lady Be Good! for Ella Fitzgerald, and Fred Hersch plays Embraceable You live at Maybeck Recital Hall that year. The Ray Brown Trio plays But Not for Me live in Boston in 1996. In 1997 Hersch and Bill Frisell play I Got Rhythm as a piano and guitar duo, and in 1998 Herbie Hancock plays The Man I Love with Joni Mitchell singing.

    Tommy Flanagan Trio Oh, Lady Be Good! · 1993The Ray Brown Trio But Not for Me · 1996
  9. 2000s

    Stacey Kent sings They Can't Take That Away from Me on an album celebrating Fred Astaire in 2000. Keith Jarrett's trio plays Oleo, a new tune over the of I Got Rhythm, at Montreux in 2001, and Greg Osby reworks Summertime on alto sax in 2003. Rufus Wainwright sings A Foggy Day at Carnegie Hall in 2006, in a concert of Judy Garland songs.

    Greg Osby Summertime · 2003Rufus Wainwright A Foggy Day · 2006
  10. 2010s

    Diana Krall records But Not for Me for Love Is Here to Stay, a 2018 Verve album made with Tony Bennett.

  11. 2020s

    Mike Jones, Graham Dechter and Alex Frank stretch Oh, Lady Be Good! to close to eleven minutes on their 2022 album Some Strings Attached. Fred Hersch, Drew Gress and Joey Baron record Embraceable You in Lugano in 2024, and Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap record 'S Wonderful as a voice and piano duo, released in June 2025.

    Fred Hersch, Drew Gress and Joey Baron Embraceable You · 2024Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap 'S Wonderful · 2025

The tunes