Michael Feinstein's Definitive George Gershwin

In honor of the composer's birthday Michael Feinstein is sharing some of his favorite performances of Gershwin's music. Click the play button to hear Feinstein's reasoning for each pick:

"Bess, You is My Woman Now" by Todd Duncan and Anne Brown/Leontyne Price and William Warfield 

"My horoscope sign is Virgo not Pisces yet I’m indecisive about what performance to play of this seminal Gershwin song “Bess, You is My Woman” which of course is from the opera Porgy and Bess. It is the best example of the mature George Gershwin and is a brilliantly crafted aria. Luckily, there are so many different versions that one can listen to all the different interpretations and find new life in the various recordings. What I’d like to do is actually play an original cast performance the first performers who sang the song “Bess, You is My Woman” in the 1935 production of Porgy and Bess, Todd Duncan and Anne Brown. They recorded it in 1940 for Decca and then I would like to morph if we can to a stereo recording of the same aria sung by Leontyne Price and William Warfield who recorded it a number of years after they had toured in Porgy and Bess in the 1950s. So it’s probably four of the greatest African American voices, at least operatic voices, of the 20th century and it is a testament to George Gershwin that he was able to capture the essence of what life was like for residence of Catfish Row yet give universality to his music that Porgy and Bess remains to this day the greatest American opera."

"Soon" by Kaye Ballard 

"It’s fascinating to me how sometimes a person becomes pigeon hold for one thing or another, and is not always acknowledge for any other talent that they might have. That's the case with Kaye Ballard who I think it's one of the great singers of the 20th century and yet most people who know her think of her as being a comedian and a fine actress of lighter rolls, but Kaye to me has in her vocal ability the pathos of Judy Garland and in her early career she made a number of recordings for a label called Walden which was started by the author Ed Jablonski for the purpose of capturing American popular song that was somewhat obscure in that period, doing song books of Cole Porter and Arthur Schwartz and Jerome Kern and they did an album called Lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Kaye Ballard sings a George and Ira Gershwin song on it called “Soon” which was written for Strike Up the Band. And for my money this is the best single recording ever made of that song."

"Fascinatin' Rhythm" by Fred and Adele Astaire

"For me, one of the seminal Gershwin recordings is a 1926 78 of “Fascinatin’ Rhythm,” recorded in London that year. Fred and Adele Astaire, George Gershwin at the piano. In those days, they rarely made original cast recordings, and yet they were doing it in England. They weren't doing it in the United States. And Fred and Adele had had a great success on Broadway in 1924 with Lady Be Good, and then they went to London to do the show. And while they were in London, or whilst they were in London, they recorded “Fascinatin’ Rhythm,” very much the way that they did it on stage, except it was with the composer at the piano. And the thing that's delicious is that it not only captures an important moment in time, that being George and Ira Gershwin’s first Broadway show together, and Fred and Adele Astaire's first booked musical together on Broadway, but the vitality of George Gershwin’s piano playing just leaps through the ages, and still has this excitement, and joy, and swagger, that will never diminish with time."

"Love is Here to Stay" by Gene Kelly 

"In 1951 MGM produced a musical called An American in Paris that was an amalgam of the Gershwin song catalog. And this came about because one night, the producer Arthur Freed was playing billiards with Ira Gershwin in Ira’s home, and he said, “Ira I'd like to to make a movie called An American in Paris, and feature the ballet in the film.” And Ira said, “Sure, that's fine Arthur, as long as you feature all Gershwin music in the film.” Arthur agreed, and Gene Kelly was the guy who was to star and choreograph and come up with the conception for the film. And Gene Kelly and Saul Chaplin, who was his musical associate, and Johnny Green spent many, many hours at the home of Ira Gershwin going through the Gershwin song catalog. Going through hundreds of Gershwin songs. One of the songs that they came across was “Love is Here to Stay,” which is the last song that George and Ira Gershwin wrote. In 1950 that song was completely obscure, it was unknown, which is surprising because today it is probably the best-known Gershwin song. It was Ira’s insistence that the song be featured in An American in Paris that has brought it to prominence today. In that film it was sung and danced by Gene Kelly with Leslie Caron, it was orchestrated by the great Conrad Salinger, who was considered to be the finest orchestrator who ever graced Hollywood, and this is that performance. Gene Kelly singing, George and Ira Gershwin’s words and music, and an arrangement by the great Conrad Salinger."

"Embraceable You" by Judy Garland

"In 1943 MGM made a film version of the 1930 Broadway hit Girl Crazy. It have been made into a film once before 1932, yet they threw out most of the Gershwin’s score. For the 1943 film they start Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and even though the film is essentially Girl Crazy they took a lot of liberties with the thing, but of course in this instance they retained most of the Gershwin’s score. And to here Judy Garland sing “I Got Rhythm,” “But Not For Me,” and this song “Embraceable You,” is one of the great treats of the movie. Judy Garland was very close to Ira Gershwin and his wife Leonore. She never met George Gershwin but George Gershwin heard Judy Garland perform one time at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles about two months before he passed. He and Ira went to a talent night at the Coconut Grove and a young lady was announced, who was going to sing, they introduced her as Judy Garland. Neither George or Ira had ever heard of her. She got up and sang a song called “Slap that Bass” which scared the hell out of Ira in George, cause they had just written a song called “Slap that Bass” for Shall We Dance and the movie hadn't been released. And they thought what is going on? It turns out Judy Garland sang another song called “Slap that Bass” and they breathed a sigh of relief. Two years later, after George Gershwin's death, Judy Garland was brought to Ira Gershwin’s home by Oscar Levant while she was making the Wizard of Oz in full Dorothy regalia and she immediately became very close with Le and Ira. So by the time she made Girl Crazy 1943 she was very deeply connected to the Gershwin catalog and that is in evidence with her Decca recording of "Embraceable You."'