The Man I Love (song)



"The Man I Love" is a popular standard with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira. Part of the 1924 score for the Gershwin musical comedy Lady, Be Good, the song was deleted from that show and put into the Gershwins' 1927 government satire Strike Up the Band (where it appears as "The Man I Love" and "The Girl I Love"), which closed out-of-town. It was considered for, then rejected from, the 1928 Ziegfeld hit Rosalie.

The song was used as the title of, and was prominently featured in, the 1947 film noir melodrama The Man I Love, starring Ida Lupino and Bruce Bennett.

Covers
Like many songs from George and Ira Gershwin, "The Man I Love" is considered part of the Great American Songbook. Composed in AABA form, it was covered on stage and on record by many artists. An early notable performance was by the Benny Goodman Quartet at the Goodman band's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert (with Benny Goodman on clarinet; Gene Krupa on drums, Teddy Wilson on piano, and Lionel Hampton on vibraphone) - famed not only as part of that historic jazz concert but for being done by one of the first integrated groups of black and white musicians to perform in concert in the United States.

In 1994 the song was recorded by Kate Bush for Larry Adler's The Glory of Gershwin tribute album; released as a single on 18 July 1994, it reached number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.