GEORGE GERSHWIN REVISITED

Music by George Gershwin
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin

This delectable album has one of Ben Bagley’s best casts – smaller than usual but nothing but star power: Barbara Cook, Anthony Perkins, Bobby Short, and Elaine Stritch, all having their way with the brilliant music of George Gershwin. As with all the Revisiteds, the point isn’t to do the hits, the point is to do lesser known material and this album has plenty of it. Culling material from such shows as La La Lucille, Sweet Little Devil, Niceties of 1923, Tell Me More, and other such obscurities. The musical direction and arrangements are by Norman Paris.

As we have with all the releases, we have considerably spruced up the sound. This is one of the handful of Bagley-released CDs that didn’t have bonus material added, so it has a fairly short run time of about forty-six minutes. But we’ve added a real treat – the first recording of the Gershwin’s amazing Concerto in F, in its original Ferde Grofe orchestration, recorded in 1928 by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra with Roy Bargy on piano. Our mastering engineer, James Nelson, has made this sound surprisingly good and it’s really fascinating to hear how this was originally done prior to the filled-out version everyone knows today. Of course, we feature the great Harvey Schmidt art. -KRITZERLAND

1 Barbara Cook, Anthony Perkins, Elaine Stritch, Bobby Short– There's More To The Kiss Than The XXX 3:41
2 Anthony Perkins, Barbara Cook– Under A One Man Top 2:40
3 Elaine Stritch– Feeling Sentimental 4:57
4 Barbara Cook, Bobby Short, Anthony Perkins– Tra-La-La 2:17
5 Bobby Short– Nashville Nightingale 2:16
6 Anthony Perkins, Barbara Cook– Drifting Along With The Tide 4:27
7 Anthony Perkins, Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch– Virginia Don't Go Too Far 2:44
8 Anthony Perkins, Bobby Short, Barbara Cook, Elaine Stritch– Back Bay Polka 3:02
9 Anthony Perkins, Barbara Cook– Changing My Tune 4:16
10 Bobby Short, Elaine Stritch– Rose Of Madrid 4:00
11 Bobby Short– Oh Gee! Oh Joy! 2:31
12 Anthony Perkins– Three Times A Day 4:04
13 Anthony Perkins, Bobby Short, Barbara Cook, Elaine Stritch– Scandal Walk 2:24

Bonus Track
14 Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra– Concerto In F
Piano – Roy Bargy 23:31

Music by George Gershwin
Lyrics by Irving Caesar, B. G. DeSylva, Ira Gershwin, Arthur Jackson, Gus Kahn, P.G. Wodehouse

Musical Direction and Arrangements by Norman Paris