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Ira Gershwin

book cover: Ira Gershwin The Art of the Lyricist by Philip Furia
Philip Furia, Ira Gershwin:
The Art of the Lyricist


Basic Information

Born: Israel Gershowitz, December 6, 1896, New York City

Died: August 17, 1983 (age 86), Beverly Hills California

Also wrote under the name: Arthur Francis, a combination of his and George's other siblings' names used on some early songs

Primary songwriting role: lyricist; also author

Co-writers: chiefly George Gershwin (brother) -- plus Harold Arlen, Aaron Copeland, Vernon Duke, Jerome Kern, Burton Lane, Arthur Schwartz, Vincent Youmans, Harry Warren and Kurt Weill
See also a database of 39 Ira Gershwin co-writers.

Page Menu

Basic Songwiter Information
Overview and Commentary
Music-Video Cabinet
Songs by This Songwriter
in the Cafe Songbook Catalog
of The Great American Songbook
Web Research Resources
Print Research Resources
Visitor Comments
Master List of Songwriters
Credits

Overview and Commentary
Ira Gershwin
(This section is currently in preparation)

Overview In preparation. See Wikipedia and/or gershwin.com.

book cover: Deena Rosenberg, "Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin"
Deena Rosenberg
Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin,
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991, 1997
(soft cover Ed.)
"From 'The Man I Love' forward, the 'well of detachment' put lyrics into the great Gershwin love ballads that underpin a detached, literate, and bemused urbanity with a deep-seated longing for love and security. It is a contrast that distinguishes Ira's lyrics from, say, those of Hart and Porter, and which contributes greatly to the warmth of the Gershwins' songs" (Rosenberg, p. 73, paperback Ed.).


book cover: Michael Feinstein, "The Gershwins and Me A Personal History in Twelve Songs"
Michael Feinstein (with Ian Jackman), The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs,
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

 


Book cover Wilfred Sheed "The House That George: Built"
Wilfred Sheed, The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty,
New York: Random House, 2007 (paper-bound ED. 2008 shown)

Ira "painstakingly and brilliantly crafted the lyric to "The Man That Got Away," the song many consider Ira's "'last great standard,' coming thirty years after the first, 'The Man I Love'." Feinstein goes on to write that he does not believe that the lyric to this song, as others have suggested, was inspired by Ira's "well of personal of suffering," especially with regard to his brother's death some seventeen years earlier. Feinstein says,

I asked Ira if he'd suffered writing that song and he said, "I was doing my job." I pressed a little: "But it's so deeply emotional and so connected to very dark feelings." He said, "Then I did my job well" (p. 102).

Wilfred Sheed agrees with Feinstein that in the lyric for "The Man That Got Away" in lines like "The road gets tougher. / It's lonelier and rougher," Ira "was not really writing about himself, but coming from the author of "Do, Do, Do" and 'S Wonderful," the voice is unrecognizable and would not be heard again in a musical score [of his] (Wilfred Sheed, The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty,
New York: Random House, 2007, p. 72).

Also Feinstein notes that when George died, Ira's life changed so much not only because it was his brother who died so prematurely but because his brother was also his "work partner." Feinstein goes on: "Of all the legendary people whom Ira worked with after George's death--Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Aaron Copeland, and Harold Arlen, among others--Geroge was the only one he considered a true genius" (p. 103).

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Cafe Songbook
Music-Video Cabinet:
Ira Gershwin
(This section is currently in preparation)



Although this video is more about George than Ira, it begins with
Ira talking about George, and Ira continues to turn up, here and there, throughout.
This interview featuring Ira Gershwin talking about his brother George is available at:
Amazon || iTunes



"That Moment of Moments" with music Vernon Duke and words by Ira Gershwin was written for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936. Songbook scholar Peter Mintun (who plays and sings above) comments, ""That Moment of Moments," surprisingly, was not the hit song of the original show. Vernon Duke's clever chord progression is one of many that set him apart from the Tin Pan Alley writers of the day.
To the delight of Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke, pianist Eddy Duchin, who led a very popular society orchestra, recorded this song and "Words Without Music" for RCA-Victor."


"Harlem Serenade" is "a rare Gershwin tune - never recorded. Ruby Keeler (and chorus) introduced this song in Ziegfeld Show Girl, [1929] with a score which included 'Liza' and 'Do What You Do.' The songs were by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn. [This one by George and Ira.] The song was never recorded commercially in its time" (note by Peter Mintun).

Ira's lyric stresses the wild African appeal of the music in Harlem and the need for white people to "take a taxi and go there." and "when you enter this new world, / This particular blue world, / You'll begin / Giving in." Today's sensibility would hear lines like "Listen to that uptown jungle wail," as being unacceptable, and rightly so. Then, the racism of it wasn't a concern in most of the white world. The Gershwin's partook of that language while at the same time they helped to create a world of integrated music, culture and life in America.

   
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Ira Gershwin Songs
currently included in the
Cafe Songbook Catalog of
The Great American Songbook
  1. Anything for You
  2. Ask Me Again
  3. Beginner's Luck
  4. Bess, You Is My Woman, Now
  5. Bidin' My Tme (I'm)
  6. But Not for Me
  7. Clap Yo' Hands
  8. Do, Do, Do
  9. Embraceable You
  10. Fascinating Rhythm
  11. Foggy Day (A)
  12. For You, For Me, Forevermore
  13. Fun To Be Fooled
  14. He Loves and She Loves
  15. How Long Has This Been Going On?
  16. I Can't Get Started (with you)
  17. I Got Plenty O' Nuthin'
  18. I Got Rhythm
  19. I Loves You, Porgy
  20. I Was Doing All Right
  21. Isn't It a Pity?
  22. It Ain't Necessarily So
  23. It's a New World
  24. I've Got a Crush On You
  25. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
  26. Let's Take a Walk around the Block
  27. Long Ago (and Far Away
  28. Love Is Here to Stay (Our)
  29. Love Is in the Air
  30. Love Walked In
  31. Luckiest Man in the World
  32. Man I Love (The)
  33. Man That Got Away (The)
  34. My Man's Gone Now
  35. My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?)
  36. My Ship
  37. Nice Work If You Can Get It
  38. Of Thee I Sing
  39. Oh, Lady Be Good!
  40. 'S Wonderful
  41. Shall We Dance?
  42. Slap That Bass
  43. Somebody Stole My Heart Away
  44. Someone at Last
  45. Someone To Watch Over Me
  46. Soon
  47. (I'll Build a)Stairway To Paradise
  48. Strike Up The Band
  49. Summertime
  50. Sure Thing
  51. Sweet And Low-Down
  52. That Certain Feeling
  53. They All Laughed
  54. They Can't Take That Away from Me
  55. Things Are Looking Up
  56. This Is New
  57. Who Cares?
  58. You're a Builder-Upper
Click here for a database of songs written or co-written by Ira Gershwin.
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Research Resources:
Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin research resources on the web (listed alphabetically by web source):
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Ira Gershwin research resources in print (listed chronologically):
 
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Credits

(Ira Gershwin page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

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Cafe Songbook
Master List
of Great American Songbook Songwriters

Names of songwriters who have written at least one song included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook are listed below.

 

Names of songwriters with two or more song credits in the catalog (with rare exceptions) are linked to their own Cafe Songbook pages, e.g. Fields, Dorothy.

 

Names of songwriters with only one song credit in the catalog are linked to the Cafe Songbook page for that song, on which may be found information about the songwriter or a link to an information source for him or her.

 

Please note: Cafe Songbook pages for songwriters are currently in various stages of development.

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Adair, Tom

Adams, Lee

Adams, Stanley

Adamson, Harold

Ager, Milton

Ahbez, Eden

Ahlert, Fred

Akst, Harry

Alexander, Van

Allen, Lewis

Allen, Steve

Alter, Louis

Altman, Arthur

Anderson, Maxwell

Andre, Fabian

Arlen, Harold
Arnheim, Gus

Arodin, Sid

Atwood, Hub

Astaire, Fred

Austin, Gene

Ayer, Nat D.

Barbour, Dave

Barnes, Billy

Barris, Harry

Bassman, George

Belle, Barbara

Bennett, Dave

Bergman, Alan and Marilyn

Berlin, Irving

Bernie, Ben

Bernstein, Leonard

Best, William "Pat"

Blackburn, John

Blackwell, Otis (a.k.a. John Davenport)

Blake, Eubie

Blane, Ralph

Blitzstein, Marc

Bloom, Rube

Bock, Jerry

Block, Martin

Boland, Clay

Borne, Hal

Borodin, Alexander

Bowman, Brooks

Boyd, Elisse

Brent, Earl K.

Bricusse, Leslie

Brooks, Harry

Brooks, Shelton

Brown, Les

Brown, Lew

Brown, Nacio Herb

Brown, Seymour

Burke, Joe

Burke, Johnny

Burke, Sonny

Burnett, Ernie

Burns, Ralph

Burwell, Cliff

Bushkin, Joe

 

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Caesar, Irving

Cahn, Sammy

Caldwell, Anne

Campbell, Jimmy

Carey, Bill (William D.)

Carmichael, Hoagy

Carroll, Harry

Carter, Benny

Casey, Kenneth

Casucci, Leonello

Chaplin, Charlie

Chaplin, Saul

Charlap, Moose

Clare, Sidney

Chase, Newell

Churchill, Frank

Clarke, Grant

Clifford, Gordon

Clinton, Larry

Coates, Carroll

Coleman, Cy

Comden, Betty and Adolph Green

Conley, Larry

Connelly, Reginald

Conrad, Con

Cooley, Eddie

Coots, J. Fred

Cory, George

Coslow, Sam

Creamer, Henry

Crosby, Bing

Cross, Douglas

Daniels, Charles N.
Davenport, John (See Otis Blackwell.)

David, Mack

Davis, Benny

Davis, Jimmy

Dee, Sylvia

De Lange, Eddie

Denniker, Paul

Dennis, Matt

De Paul, Gene

De Rose, Peter

De Sylva, B.G. (Buddy)

DeVries, John

Dietz, Howard

Distel, Sacha

Dixon, Mort

Donaldson, Walter

Dorsey, Jimmy

Dougherty, Doc

Drake, Ervin
Drake, Milton

Dreyer, Dave

Dubin, Al

Duke, Vernon

Edens, Roger

Edwards, Michael

Egan, Raymond B.

Eliscu, Edward

Ellington, Duke

Elman, Ziggy

Engvick, William

Evans, Ray

Evans, Redd

Eyton, Frank

 

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Fields, Dorothy

Fischer, Carl

Fisher, Dan

Fisher, Fred

Fisher, Mark

Fisher, Marvin

Forrest, George

Freed, Arthur

Freed, Ralph

L. E. Freeman

Gaines, Lee

Gallop, Sammy

Gannon, Kim

Garner, Errol

Gaskill, Clarence

Gensler, Lewis E.

George, Don

Gershwin, George

Gershwin, Ira

Gillespie, Haven

Golden, John

Goodman, Benny

Goodwin, Joe

Gordon, Irving

Gordon, Mack

Gorney, Jay

Gorrell, Stuart

Goulding, Edmund

Grainger, Porter

Grand, Murray

Grant, Ian

Gray, Chauncey

Gray, Timothy

Grever, Maria

Grey, Clifford
Green, Adolph and Betty Comden

Green, Bud

Green, Freddie

Green, Johnny

Gross, Walter

Haggart, Bob

Hamilton, Arthur

Hamilton, Nancy

Hamm, Fred

Hammerstein, Arthur

Hammerstein II, Oscar

Hampton, Lionel

Handy, W. C.
Hanighen, Bernie

Hanley, James F.

Harbach, Otto

Harburg, E. Y. (Yip)

Harling, W. Franke

Harline, Leigh

Hart, Lorenz

Henderson, Jimmy

Henderson, Ray

Herbert, Victor

Herman, Woody

Herron, Joel S.

Herzog Jr., Arthur

Heyman, Edward

Heyward, Dubose

Higginbotham, Irene

Higgins, Billy

Hilliard, Bob

Hirsch, Walter

Hodges, Johnny

Holiday, Billie

Holiner, Mann

Hollander, Frederick

Holofcener, Larry

Homer, Ben

Hopper, Hal

Howard, Bart

Hubbell, Raymond

Hupfeld, Herman

 

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I-J

Jacobs, Jacob

Jaffe, Moe

James, Freddy (Pseud. for Teddy Powell)

James, Harry

James, Paul

Jenkins, Gordon

Johnson, James P.

Johnston, Arthur

Johnston, Patricia

Jolson, Al

Jones, Isham

Kahal, Irving

Kahn, Gus

Kahn, Roger Wolfe

Kalmar, Bert

Keith, Marilyn
Kent, Walter

Kern, Jerome

Kisco, Charles

Kitchings, Irene

Koehler, Ted

Kosma, Joseph

Kramer, Alex

Kramer, Joan Whitney

Kurtz, Manny

Laine, Frankie

Lamare, Jules (a.k.a Charles N.

Daniels and Neil Moret)

Lane, Burt
Landesman, Fran

Latouche, John

Lawrence, Eddie

Lawrence, Jack

Layton, Turner

Lee, Peggy

Leigh, Carolyn

Leonard, Anita

Lerner, Alan Jay
Leslie, Edgar

Levant, Oscar

Lewis, Morgan

Lewis, Sam M.

Link, Harry

Lippman, Sidney

Livingston, Fud

Livingston, Jay

Livingston, Jerry

Loeb, John Jacob

Loesser, Frank

Loewe, Frederick

Lombardo, Carmen

Lowe, Ruth

Lown, Bert
Lyman, Abe

 

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MacDonald, Ballard

Magidson, Herb
Malneck, Matty

Mancini, Henry

Mandel, Frank

Mandel, Johnny

Mann, David

Marks, Gerald

Martin, Hugh

Maschwitz, Eric

Mayer, Henry
McCarey, Leo

McCarthy, Joseph

McCarthy, Jr., Joseph

McHugh, Jimmy

McCoy, Joe

Mellin, Robert

Mercer, Johnny

Merrill, Bob

Mertz, Paul Madeira

Meyer, Joseph

Miles, Dick

Miller, Glenn

Miller, Nathan Ned

Mills, Irving
Mitchell, Sidney D.

Moll, Billy

Monaco, Jimmy

Moret, Neil (aka Charles N. Daniels)

Morey, Larry

Moross, Jerome

Mundy, Jimmy

Muse, Clarence

Myrow, Josef

Nemo, Henry

Newley, Anthony

Nichols, Alberta

Noble, Ray

Norman, Pierre
Norton, George A.

Oakland, Ben

Overstreet, Benton W.

Palmer, Jack

Palmer, Bee

Parish, Mitchell

Parker, Dorothy

Parker, Sol

Parsons, Geoffrey

Perkins, Frank S.

Phillipe-Gérard M(ichel)

Pinkard, Maceo

Porter, Cole

Prima, Louis

Prince, Graham

Prince, Hughie

 

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Raksin, David

Ram, Buck

Ramirez, Roger (Ram)

Rand Lionel

Raye, Don

Razaf, Andy

Reardon, Jack

Redmond, John

Rene, Leon T.

Rene, Otis

Revel, Harry

Reynolds, Ellis

Reynolds, Herbert

Rhodes, Stan

Robin, Leo

Robin, Sid

Robison, Willard

Rodgers, Richard

Romberg, Sigmund

Rome, Harold

Ronell, Ann
Rose, Billy

Rose, Fred

Rose, Vincent

Ruby, Harry

Ruby, Herman

Ruskin, Harry

Russell, Bob

Sampson, Edgar

Sanicola, Henry

Santly, Lester

Savitt, Jay

Secunda, Sholom

Segal Jack
Schertzinger, Victor
Schwandt, Wilbur

Schwartz, Arthur

Scott, Bertha

Shapiro, Ted

Shavers, Charlie

Shay, Larry

Shearing, George

Sherman, Jimmy

Sherwin, Manning

Sigman, Carl

Signorelli, Frank

Silvers, Phil

Simons, Seymour

Sinatra, Frank

Sissle, Noble

Skylar, Sunny

Snyder, Ted

Sondheim, Stephen

Sour, Robert
Spence, Lew

Springer, Philip

Stept, Sam H.

Stock, Larry

Stordahl, Axel

Strachey, Jack

Strayhorn, Billy

Strouse, Charles

Styne, Jule

Suessdorf, Karl

Suesse, Dana

Sullivan, Henry

Swan, Einar Aaron

Swift, Kay

Symes, Marty

 

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Tauber, Doris

Teagarten, Jack

Thompson, Kay
Tobias, Charles

Tobias, Harry

Tormé, Mel

Tracey, William G.
Trent, Jo

Troop, Bobby

Turk, Roy

Turner, John

Van Heusen, Jimmy (James)

Vimmerstedt, Sadie

Waller, Fats

Warfield, Charles

Warren, Harry

Washington, Ned
Watson, Johnny

Webb, Chick

Webster, Paul Francis

Weill, Kurt

Weiss, George David

Wells, Robert

Weston, Paul

Whiting, Richard A.

Whiting, George A.

Wilder, Alec

Wiley, Lee

Wilkinson, Dudley


Williams, Clarence

Williams, Spencer

Wodehouse, P. G.

Wolf, Donald E.

Wolf, Jack

Wolf, Tommy

Wood, Guy B

Woods, Harry M.

Wright, Lawrence

Wright, Robert

Wrubel, Allie

Yellen, Jack

Youmans, Vincent

Young, Joe

Young, Trummy

Young, Victor

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