He was born Jacob Gershowitz, 26 September 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a boy he could play popular and classical works on his brother Ira's piano by ear. In 1913 he quit school to study music and began composing for Tin Pan Alley; by 1919 he had his first hit "Swanee" and his first Broadway show "La...See full bio »
–
Best Band in the Land
(2010)
(music: "They All Laughed", "I Got Rhythm" - uncredited, "Of Thee I Sing", "The Man I Love", "'S Wonderful" - uncredited, "They Can't Take That Away from Me")
–
The Fred Astaire Songbook
(1991)
(music: "They Can't Take That Away from Me", "Slap That Bass", "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", "The Babbitt and the Bromide", "A Foggy Day", "He Loves and She Loves", "The Half of It, Dearie, Blues", "Oh, Lady Be Good", "'s Wonderful")
2007Kurt Masur: A Life in Music
(TV movie)
(music: "Oh, I can't sit down from Porgy and Bess", "There's a boat dat's leavin' soon for New York from Porgy and Bess")
–
The Magic of Gershwin
(2006)
(writer: "They Can't Take That Away From Me", "But Not for Me", "I've Got A Crush On You", "Our Love is Here To Stay" / music: "Summertime", "Embraceable You", "Somebody Loves Me")
2006Take the Lead
(writer: "I Got Rhythm Take the Lead Remix", "I Got Rhythm", "I Like That You Can't Take That Away from Me", "They Can't Take That Away from Me")
2005Great Women Singers of the 20th Century: Sarah Vaughan
(video)
(music: "But Not for Me" - uncredited, "Our Love Is Here to Stay" - uncredited, "Embraceable You" - uncredited, "Someone to Watch Over Me" - uncredited)
2003Mwah! The Best of the Dinah Shore Show
(TV documentary)
(writer: "I Got Rhythm", "They Can't Take That Away from Me" / music: "I Got Rhythm", "They Can't Take That Away from Me")
1994That's Entertainment! III
(documentary)
(music: "Fascinating Rhythm" 19240 - uncredited, "An American in Paris Ballet" 1936 - uncredited, "Love Is Here to Stay" 1938 - uncredited)
–
Porgy and Bess
(1993)
(music: "Overture and Jasbo Brown Blues", "Summertime", "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing", "Here Come de Honey Man", "They Pass By Singin'", "The Crap Game", "Gone, Gone, Gone", "Overflow, Overflow", "My Man's Gone Now", "Oh, the Train is at the Station", "It Take a Long Pull to Get There", "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'", "Bess, You Is My Woman Now", "Oh, I Can't Sit Down", "I Ain't Got No Shame", "It Ain't Necessarily So", "What You Want With Bess?", "O Doctor Jesus", "Street Vendors' Cries", "I Loves You Porgy", "God and Me/ A Red Headed Woman", "Clara, Clara", "There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York", "O Bess, O Where's My Bess", "Finale: O Lawd, I'm On My Way", "Closing Credits Music")
1979Manhattan
(music: "Rhapsody in Blue" 1924, "Love Is Sweeping the Country" 1931, "Land of the Gay Caballero" 1930, "Sweet and Low Down" 1927, "I've Got a Crush on You" 1930, "Do-Do-Do" 1926, "S'Wonderful" 1927, "Oh, Lady Be Good" 1924, "Strike Up the Band" 1927, "Embraceable You" 1930, "Someone to Watch Over Me" 1926, "He Loves, and She Loves" 1927, "But Not for Me" 1930)
1976That's Entertainment, Part II
(documentary)
(music: "Fascinating Rhythm" 1924 - uncredited, "I Got Rhythm" - uncredited, "Oh, Lady Be Good" 1924 - uncredited, "Concerto in F" 1925 - uncredited, "I Got Rhythm" 1930 - uncredited, "Love Is Here to Stay" 1938 - uncredited, "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" 1922 - uncredited)
1974That's Entertainment!
(documentary)
(music: "Strike Up the Band" 1927 - uncredited, "The Babbitt and the Bromide" 1927 - uncredited, "They Can't Take That Away from Me" 1937 - uncredited, "But Not for Me" 1930 - uncredited, "An American in Paris Ballet" 1951 - uncredited)
1959Porgy and Bess
(music: "Summertime", "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing", "Here Come de Honey Man", "They Pass By Singin'", "The Crap Game", "Gone, Gone, Gone", "My Man's Gone Now", "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'", "Bess, You Is My Woman Now", "Oh, I Can't Sit Down", "I Ain't Got No Shame", "It Ain't Necessarily So", "What You Want With Bess?", "O Doctor Jesus", "Street Vendors' Cries", "I Loves You Porgy", "God and Me", "A Red Headed Woman", "Clara, Clara", "There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York", "Morning Sounds", "O Bess, O Where's My Bess", "Finale: O Lawd, I'm On My Way")
1959Some of Manie's Friends
(TV movie)
(music: "A Foggy Day" - uncredited, "They Can't Take That Away from Me" - uncredited)
–
Episode #1.3
(1957)
(music: "I've Got a Crush on You" - uncredited)
1957The Helen Morgan Story
(music: "Do, Do, Do" - uncredited, "The Man I Love" - uncredited, "Do It Again" - uncredited, "Fascinating Rhythm" - uncredited, "Someone to Watch Over Me" - uncredited, "Somebody Loves Me" - uncredited, "Swanee" - uncredited)
1957Beau James
(music: "Someone to Watch Over Me" - uncredited)
–
Three's a Crowd
(1957)
(music: "'S Wonderful" - uncredited)
–
Lost Jacket
(1956)
(music: "Who Cares?" - uncredited)
1957Funny Face
(music: "Funny Face", "How Long Has This Been Going On?", "Let's Kiss and Make Up", "He Loves and She Loves", "Clap Yo' Hands", "'S Wonderful")
1951An American in Paris
(music: "Our Love Is Here to Stay" 1937 - uncredited, "By Strauss" 1936 - uncredited, "Tra-la-la This Time It's Really Love" 1922 - uncredited, "I Got Rhythm" 1930 - uncredited, "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" 1922 - uncredited, "'S Wonderful" 1927 - uncredited, "Nice Work if You Can Get It" 1937 - uncredited, "Embraceable You" 1930 - uncredited, "An American in Paris Ballet" - uncredited, "Strike Up the Band" 1927 - uncredited, "Third Movement from 'Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra'" 1925 - uncredited, "But Not for Me" 1930 - uncredited, "How Long Has This Been Going On?" 1928 - uncredited, "Someone to Watch Over Me" 1926 - uncredited, "Oh, Lady Be Good" 1926 - uncredited, "I've Got a Crush on You, Sweetie Pie" 1927 - uncredited)
1945Rhapsody in Blue
(music: "Embraceable You" - uncredited, "Swanee" - uncredited, "Rhapsody in Blue" - uncredited, "Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra" - uncredited, "Summertime" - uncredited, "The Man I Love" - uncredited, "An American in Paris" - uncredited, "Blue Monday Blues" - uncredited, "I Got Rhythm" - uncredited, "Love Walked In" - uncredited, "'S Wonderful" - uncredited, "Somebody Loves Me" - uncredited, "Drifting Along with the Tide" - uncredited, " I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" - uncredited, "Oh, Lady Be Good" - uncredited, "Has One of You Seen Joe?" - uncredited, "I'm Gonna See My Mother" - uncredited, "Clap Yo' Hands" - uncredited, "Fascinating Rhythm" - uncredited, "The Yankee Doodle Blues" - uncredited, "Bidin' My Time" - uncredited, "Cuban Overture" - uncredited, "Mine" - uncredited, "Delishious" - uncredited, "It Ain't Necessarily So" - uncredited, "Someone to Watch Over Me" - uncredited, "Do It Again" - uncredited, "Liza All the Clouds'll Roll Away" - uncredited)
1945War Comes to America
(documentary)
(music: "Rhapsody in Blue" - uncredited, "Fascinating Rhythm" - uncredited)
1944I Won't Play
(short)
(writer: "Rhapsody in Blue" 1924 - uncredited)
1944Mr. Skeffington
(music: "Someone to Watch Over Me" 1926 - uncredited)
1944The Negro Soldier
(documentary short)
(music: "Piano Concerto In F Major" - uncredited)
1943Old Acquaintance
(music: "Embraceable You" 1930 - uncredited)
1943Girl Crazy
(music: "I Got Rhythm" 1930 - uncredited, "Treat Me Rough" 1930 - uncredited, "Could You Use Me?" 1930 - uncredited, "Bidin' My Time" 1930 - uncredited, "Embraceable You" 1930 - uncredited, "But Not for Me" 1930 - uncredited, "Fascinating Rhythm" 1924 - uncredited, "Sam and Delilah" 1930 - uncredited, "Barbary Coast" 1930 - uncredited, "Boy! What Love Has Done to Me!" 1930 - uncredited, "When It's Cactus Time in Arizona" 1930 - uncredited)
1938The Goldwyn Follies
(music: "Love Walked In" 1937 - uncredited, "I Was Doing All Right" 1937 - uncredited, "Love Is Here to Stay" 1937 - uncredited, "I Love to Rhyme" 1937 - uncredited, "Just Another Rhumba" 1937 - uncredited)
1937Shall We Dance
(music: "Slap That Bass" 1937 - uncredited, "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" 1937 - uncredited, "They Can't Take That Away from Me" 1937 - uncredited, "Shall We Dance" 1937 - uncredited, "They All Laughed" 1937 - uncredited, "Beginner's Luck" 1937 - uncredited, "Walking the Dog - Promenade" 1937 - uncredited, "Rhapsody in Blue" 1924 - uncredited)
1937A Damsel in Distress
(music: "I Can't Be Bothered Now" 1937 - uncredited, "The Jolly Tar and the Milkmaid" 1937 - uncredited, "Put Me to the Test" 1937 - uncredited, "Stiff Upper Lip" 1937 - uncredited, "Things Are Looking Up" 1937 - uncredited, "Sing of Spring" 1937 - uncredited, "A Foggy Day" 1937 - uncredited, "Nice Work If You Can Get It" 1937 - uncredited)
1932Big City Blues
(music: "Somebody Loves Me" - uncredited)
1932Girl Crazy
(music: "Bidin' My Time" 1930 - uncredited, "I Got Rhythm" 1930 - uncredited, "You've Got What Gets Me" 1932 - uncredited, "But Not for Me" 1930 - uncredited)
1931Delicious
(music: "DELISHIOUS", "WELCOME TO THE MELTING POT", "SOMEBODY FROM SOMEWHERE", "KATINKITSHA", "BLAH-BLAH-BLAH", "RHAPSODY IN RIVETS")
1930The Song of the Flame
("The Cossack Love Song", "Song of the Flame", "Wander Away")
1930King of Jazz
(music: "Rhapsody in Blue" - uncredited)
[on Jerome Kern, 1916] He was the first composer who made me conscious that popular music was of inferior quality, and that musical-comedy music was made of better material. I followed Kern's work and studied each song that he composed. I paid him the tribute of frank imitation, and many things I wrote at that time sounded as though he had written them himself.
See more »
Trivia:
His "Rhapsody in Blue" was hugely successful at its premiere, coming at the end of a reportedly extremely dull concert.
See more »
Show all
Hide all
company.