The Little Song That Could

"The Man I Love" was introduced by Adele Astaire in a pre-Broadway tryout of Lady, Be Good! in 1924, but cut in Philadelphia.  Then it was cut from Strike Up the Band in 1927 and Rosalie in 1928.  As Ira wrote of the song, it was "3 Strikes and Out."  But through efforts by Lady Mountbatten, who requested a copy of the sheet music and brought it back to London for the Berkeley Square Orchestra to play, and the sheet music publisher Max Dreyfus, the song began to catch the ear of popular singers like Helen Morgan and is still filling the airwaves 91 years later!

The version we included on "Retrophonic Gershwin" is transcribed from a recording of Lena Horne and pianist Lennie Hayton.  They recorded it in October '47, and were married in Paris two months later.  I'd been performing this arrangement for several years in our single-piano Gershwin show, and for our first outing of Gershwin On the Air I did a duo-piano arrangement of a late 1920s recording by Marion Harris.  After performing it only once, however, I went back to the Horne/Hayton version.  Something about the way they perform it makes me think that the man she loves isn't ever going to come along...

So here's a clip, with Jason at the piano:  

This is the tenth — and final — post in a series about the tunes on "Retrophonic Gershwin," our soon-to-be-released album.  Part 1 is "How I Got Rhythm," part 2 is ""Probably I'll Meet Him at a Soda Fountain,"" part 3 is "Which Pianist is Playing What?," part 4 is "Silver Linings," part 5 is "Darling, Let's Take a Bow", part 6 is "A Tune with Distinct Potentialities," part 7 is "Retrophonic Gershwin out July 21st!," part 8 is "Conjuring Bing," and part 9 is "Treat Me Rough."  Available July 21, 2015 on iTunes, and here.