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Tuesday 26 December 2006 13:30-14:00 (Radio 4 FM)
George Gershwin's I Got Rhythm was a hit right from its first appearance in the 1930 musical Girl Crazy. It stopped the show night after night, thanks to the vocal powerhouse that was Ethel Merman.
As well as a favourite with singers from Judy Garland to Gene Kelly, it became the basis for a host of leading jazz performers, and three years before he died Gershwin composed a suite of Variations for full orchestra.
Lowri Blake traces its history, with archive of Gershwin himself playing and talking, and contributions from singer Lorna Luft, guitarist John Etheridge, conductor Leonard Slatkin, pianist Jack Gibbons and Gershwin biographer Rodney Greenberg.
