Mark Pentleton

A real treat today! The perfect Gershwin harmonies in Bess, you is my woman now are just beautiful and I’ve always loved playing this song. I wanted something just perfect to play today to welcome my new little niece into the world. She doesn’t have a name yet, but many congratulations to mum Morag, dad [...]

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Today’s song by George and Ira Gershwin dates from the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress when it was performed by Fred Astaire. Since then the song has been covered by many artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland and Michael Bublé.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:34 — 5.0MB)

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Today’s song dates from 1928 when it was first written for a never-published operetta by George and Ira Gershwin called East is West. It was introduced in 1930 in the musical Girl Crazy by Ginger Rogers.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:23 — 4.7MB)

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I hope I’m not tempting fate by playing this song too early in the summer! This weekend we’ve had beautiful weather and it really feels like summer has arrived. I’ve recorded Gershwin’s Summertime from the musical Porgy and Bess, written in 1936 and, as I’ve just found out today, based on a Ukrainian folk melody [...]

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I like to think that I’m keeping things as varied as possible here on 365songs – in the past few days we’ve had TV Themes, Opera, Disney, 80s Power Ballad and today I’m returning to what is probably my favourite type of music to play with Gershwin’s They can’t take that away from me. It [...]

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A birthday performance for me today! I’ve been saving this song for a special day as it’s always been one of my favourite songs to play. It was first released in 1938 so it’s quite appropriate as I turn 38 today! It also featured in An American in Paris. I recorded it this evening after [...]

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Today’s song is the Gershwin classic But not for me, written for the musical Girl Crazy in 1930. It’s since featured in the movies Manhattan, When Harry Met Sally and Four Weddings and a Funeral. By the sounds of things I need to practise my jazz scales a bit more – the middle section is [...]

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I’ve always loved this song. It was originally written by George and Ira Gershwin in 1926 for the musical Oh Kay! and has been sung by many performers including Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara Streisand and Linda Ronstadt. The song has also featured on Battlestar Galactica and in Star Trek: Voyager and in the movie Mr Holland’s [...]

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