The Man I Love (1924–7)

By Strauss (1936)

The extraordinary thing about The Man I Love, which is perhaps the most popular of all George and Ira Gershwin songs, is that it never found a congenial home in any of their musicals. It was written in the first place for one of their earliest stage collaborations, Lady be Good, where it was to be sung by Adele Astaire, co-starring with her brother Fred. But after a try-out of the show in Philadelphia it was cut out before the New York opening in December 1924. They tried it again three years later in Strike up the Band, which also opened in Philadelphia but which didn’t get as far as New York with or without it. It was then rewritten for the Ziegfield show Rosalie a year later but seems not to have been rehearsed, let alone performed, in that context. The composer himself thought that its failure in the theatre was something to do with a melody “which is not easy to catch: it presents too many chromatic pitfalls; hardly anybody whistles or hums it correctly without the support of a piano or other instrument.” The chromaticism of the refrain did nothing, however, to harm the progress of The Man I Love when it was released as a separate song.

Written at the other end of their joint career, for the revue The show is on at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, in 1936, By Strauss is one of George and Ira’s most sophisticated collaborations. Though not immediately successful, it owes much of its present popularity to its performance by Gene Kelly and Oscar Levant in the 1951 film An American in Paris.