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Selected Lyrics
The collaboration of Ira and George Gershwin was one of the summits of American popular music. Ira Gershwin's lyrics-with their stylish simplicity, exuberant comic invention, and colloquial eloquence-have entered the culture, and Robert Kimball has collected the most memorable of them into a beguiling collection that includes
Fascinating Rhythm
Oh, Lady, Be Good!
Someone to Watch Over Me
'S Wonderful
My One and Only
How Long Has This Been Going On?
I've Got a Crush on You
Embraceable You
I Got Rhythm
But Not for Me
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
They Can't Take That Away from Me
A Foggy Day (In London Town)
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Long Ago (and Far Away)
The Man That Got Away
and dozens more.
Fascinating Rhythm
Oh, Lady, Be Good!
Someone to Watch Over Me
'S Wonderful
My One and Only
How Long Has This Been Going On?
I've Got a Crush on You
Embraceable You
I Got Rhythm
But Not for Me
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
They Can't Take That Away from Me
A Foggy Day (In London Town)
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Long Ago (and Far Away)
The Man That Got Away
and dozens more.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published August 25, 2009
17 people want to read
About the author
Robert Kimball
40 books2 followersRobert Kimball (1939-) is a musical theatre historian and critic.
Kimball was educated at Yale College and Yale Law School and has been the music critic of the New York Post. He is the co-author or editor of several books on musical theatre.
Kimball was one of the four participants who hammered out a bipartisan compromise in October 1963 that helped lead to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Kimball was educated at Yale College and Yale Law School and has been the music critic of the New York Post. He is the co-author or editor of several books on musical theatre.
Kimball was one of the four participants who hammered out a bipartisan compromise in October 1963 that helped lead to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 24, 2025
"But Ira, he's kind, he's always kind, and for genius to be kind takes a special sort of genius in itself."
- There but for the" - Ali Smith
Ira Gershwin, along with his more famous brother, George, was a part of what's been called The Great American Songbook. I've never liked that expression and prefer to call it The Great Metropolitan Songbook, since the songs generally included in it didn't speak to or for a large portion of America, particularly many Black people and White people living in rural areas. Blues, blues-related songs, and country songs are never included when the Great American Songbook is mentioned.
And, as long as I'm complaining, I'll register another one. It's not uncommon, when I'm listening to an instrumental performance of a song, to find that only the composer of the music is credited. The have been numerous times when I've looked at credits and found "Gershwin" or "G. Gershwin" listed as the composer of a song that George Gershwin wrote with his brother, Ira.
Lester Young, a man who loved melody as much as any musician who ever lived, always wanted to know the lyrics of a song before he recorded it. So did Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, and probably many others I don't know about. And Dexter Gordon often recited lyrics before he played. There are recordings that document that fact.
Lyrics are important. If Ira Gershwin hadn't provided lyrics to his brother's songs, those songs might have been called Song # 17, tune # 34, or composition # 86. Think about that. Lyrics are important for many reasons.
Sometimes the Gershwin's music and lyrics complement each other and both are of equal importance. I think of:
"Someone to Watch Over Me"
There's a somebody I'm longing to see;
I hope that he
Turns out to be
Someone who'll watch over me.
Although he may not be the man
Some girls think of as handsome,
To my heart he'll carry the key.
(Only someone who lived in the shadow of his more dashing younger brother might have written that last stanza.)
or
"They Can't Take That Away From Me"
The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea,
The mem'ry of all that -
No, No! They can't take that away from me!
The way your smile just beams,
The way you sing off key,
The way you haunt my dreams -
No! No! They can't take that away from me!
And, occasionally, the lyrics may seem to take precedence:
"Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"
You say eether and I say eyether;
You say neether and I say Nyther;
Eether, Eyether, neether, nyther -
Let's Call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like po-tah-to;
You like tomato and I like to-mah-to;
Potato, po-tah-to, tomato, To-mah-to -
Let's call the whole thing off!
But oh, if we call the whole thing off, then we must part.
And oh, if we call the whole thing off, then that might break my heart.
The singer and the song - There are many lyrics included in this volume that I've never heard. And there are also songs that I know, but have never heard their verses. I'm particular about the singers I listen to. Ella Fitzgerald, for example, recorded a fair number of George and Ira Gershwin songs, but her voice is sometimes too smooth and sweet for my ears. Finding singers who match the songs will be an interesting adventure for me.
The Library of America has published two volumes of song lyrics that I'm aware of - this one and a volume of Cole Porter's lyrics. Cole Porter was a composer who wrote his own lyrics. Sometimes those lyrics were excellent and sometimes I have the sense that he was too clever for his own good.
If I ran the Library of America, I'd add at least two more volumes of lyrics to their catalog. One would be a collection of Lorenz Hart's lyrics. Hart was Richard Rodger's longtime songwriting partner until Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II to write a series of overblown operettas. Hart's lyrics included "I Could Write a Book", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", "It Never Entered My Mind", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Thou Swell", and many, many others.
The other volume that I'd add would be a volume of Johnny Mercer's lyrics. Mercer sometimes wrote his own music - "I'm an Old Cowhand" - but, more often, was a hired gunslinger of a lyricist who teamed with songwriters such as Hoagy Carmichael - "Lazy Bones"; Jerome Kern - "I'm Old Fashioned"; Harold Arlen - "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "That Old Black Magic"; Richard Whiting - "Too Marvelous for Words"; Rube Bloom - "Fools Rush In"; and Henry Mancini - "Moon River", to name just a few. (And, if you think that "Moon River" was just a corny pop tune included in a movie, listen to the lyrics (closely) again.
I've gone a bit off-topic, but I want to make one addition to my positive comments on this book. The cover features a great drawing of Ira Gershwin done by Al Hirschfeld.
- There but for the" - Ali Smith
Ira Gershwin, along with his more famous brother, George, was a part of what's been called The Great American Songbook. I've never liked that expression and prefer to call it The Great Metropolitan Songbook, since the songs generally included in it didn't speak to or for a large portion of America, particularly many Black people and White people living in rural areas. Blues, blues-related songs, and country songs are never included when the Great American Songbook is mentioned.
And, as long as I'm complaining, I'll register another one. It's not uncommon, when I'm listening to an instrumental performance of a song, to find that only the composer of the music is credited. The have been numerous times when I've looked at credits and found "Gershwin" or "G. Gershwin" listed as the composer of a song that George Gershwin wrote with his brother, Ira.
Lester Young, a man who loved melody as much as any musician who ever lived, always wanted to know the lyrics of a song before he recorded it. So did Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, and probably many others I don't know about. And Dexter Gordon often recited lyrics before he played. There are recordings that document that fact.
Lyrics are important. If Ira Gershwin hadn't provided lyrics to his brother's songs, those songs might have been called Song # 17, tune # 34, or composition # 86. Think about that. Lyrics are important for many reasons.
Sometimes the Gershwin's music and lyrics complement each other and both are of equal importance. I think of:
"Someone to Watch Over Me"
There's a somebody I'm longing to see;
I hope that he
Turns out to be
Someone who'll watch over me.
Although he may not be the man
Some girls think of as handsome,
To my heart he'll carry the key.
(Only someone who lived in the shadow of his more dashing younger brother might have written that last stanza.)
or
"They Can't Take That Away From Me"
The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea,
The mem'ry of all that -
No, No! They can't take that away from me!
The way your smile just beams,
The way you sing off key,
The way you haunt my dreams -
No! No! They can't take that away from me!
And, occasionally, the lyrics may seem to take precedence:
"Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"
You say eether and I say eyether;
You say neether and I say Nyther;
Eether, Eyether, neether, nyther -
Let's Call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like po-tah-to;
You like tomato and I like to-mah-to;
Potato, po-tah-to, tomato, To-mah-to -
Let's call the whole thing off!
But oh, if we call the whole thing off, then we must part.
And oh, if we call the whole thing off, then that might break my heart.
The singer and the song - There are many lyrics included in this volume that I've never heard. And there are also songs that I know, but have never heard their verses. I'm particular about the singers I listen to. Ella Fitzgerald, for example, recorded a fair number of George and Ira Gershwin songs, but her voice is sometimes too smooth and sweet for my ears. Finding singers who match the songs will be an interesting adventure for me.
The Library of America has published two volumes of song lyrics that I'm aware of - this one and a volume of Cole Porter's lyrics. Cole Porter was a composer who wrote his own lyrics. Sometimes those lyrics were excellent and sometimes I have the sense that he was too clever for his own good.
If I ran the Library of America, I'd add at least two more volumes of lyrics to their catalog. One would be a collection of Lorenz Hart's lyrics. Hart was Richard Rodger's longtime songwriting partner until Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II to write a series of overblown operettas. Hart's lyrics included "I Could Write a Book", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", "It Never Entered My Mind", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Thou Swell", and many, many others.
The other volume that I'd add would be a volume of Johnny Mercer's lyrics. Mercer sometimes wrote his own music - "I'm an Old Cowhand" - but, more often, was a hired gunslinger of a lyricist who teamed with songwriters such as Hoagy Carmichael - "Lazy Bones"; Jerome Kern - "I'm Old Fashioned"; Harold Arlen - "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "That Old Black Magic"; Richard Whiting - "Too Marvelous for Words"; Rube Bloom - "Fools Rush In"; and Henry Mancini - "Moon River", to name just a few. (And, if you think that "Moon River" was just a corny pop tune included in a movie, listen to the lyrics (closely) again.
I've gone a bit off-topic, but I want to make one addition to my positive comments on this book. The cover features a great drawing of Ira Gershwin done by Al Hirschfeld.
October 10, 2020
Ever so entertaining ... from the Oh-so familiar, like “Someone to Watch Over Me,” to the unheard of, such as “Applause, Applause” ... this is a grand book of sparkling, singable lyrics ... Ogden Nash had better look to his laurels, because Ira Gershwin is just as witty and talented ...
November 16, 2009
Granted, I love music so these comments may be a mite biased . For me, the partnership of George and Ira Gershwin produced some of the best popular music we know or will ever know. Whether it was a song that touched your heart or a melody that made you want to get up and dance they were music masters. We cannot think of one Gershwin without the other.
However, since many of us are "hummers," tending to remember a tune rather than words perhaps not enough emphasis has been placed on the brilliant lyrics of Ira. Now, in this all too brief volume we are privileged to read and reread his words, perhaps realizing for the first time what a truly amazing lyricist he was.
The breadth of his writing astounds as he excelled in both comedic (Let's Call The Whole Thing Off) and dramatic (The Man That Got Away) veins. "Good lyrics," Ira once told one of George's biographers, "should be simple, colloquial, rhymed conversation." Ira's lyrics were that yet so much more, they often reflected the way we spoke during the years that he wrote. He had an ear for the man (and woman) on the street, penning lyrics that reflected their thoughts and aspirations.
Irving Berlin, after singing "A Foggy Day In London Town" over the telephone to a friend said, "Never forget how great Ira was." This collection of his song lyrics will help us remember.
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
However, since many of us are "hummers," tending to remember a tune rather than words perhaps not enough emphasis has been placed on the brilliant lyrics of Ira. Now, in this all too brief volume we are privileged to read and reread his words, perhaps realizing for the first time what a truly amazing lyricist he was.
The breadth of his writing astounds as he excelled in both comedic (Let's Call The Whole Thing Off) and dramatic (The Man That Got Away) veins. "Good lyrics," Ira once told one of George's biographers, "should be simple, colloquial, rhymed conversation." Ira's lyrics were that yet so much more, they often reflected the way we spoke during the years that he wrote. He had an ear for the man (and woman) on the street, penning lyrics that reflected their thoughts and aspirations.
Irving Berlin, after singing "A Foggy Day In London Town" over the telephone to a friend said, "Never forget how great Ira was." This collection of his song lyrics will help us remember.
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews