Yesterday I sang for a group at a senior center and our favorite song of the set was Gershwin's "Summertime." On my way out, I was asked if I knew more Gershwin and came home and looked up more of his songs. He was one of the composers you see in the Great American Song Book .
I downloaded the song, "I Got Rhythm" and was hooked when I started playing it. I first heard it by a band called The Happenings who sang it live on the Smother's Brothers show. But surely you would recall Ethel Mermin's version or how about Gene Kelly in An American in Paris? The song was written in 1930 and it is still a song that feels catchy and it's great fun to play. So what is it about this song that makes it so interesting?
I did some reading up about it and found out that the song employs a chord progression called the rhythm changes which began a trend in the 30s with songs using that rhythm. How clever is that--a song, "I Got Rhythm" uses a new rhythmic change that starts a trend?
I also think that the language being in a colloquial street person voice ("I got rhythm instead of I've got rhythm) is some of the appeal as it gives off an urban feeling. A carefree life with all the glitter and neon lights, smokey jazz bars, the exciting night life in the big city. As I grew up in Chicago, this song does bring these images to mind.
There is also something about the melody being part of a pentatonic scale--now I am getting very music theory oriented on you here--but basically it is an modal and older form of music that is common with Celtic, Gospel, Greek, Asian music, jazz too. I think though that singing this modal melody brings us back to our deep roots and that is part of why the song is kind of addictive. It is like a food that once you eat it, you crave more of it.
Even my cat Jasper likes it and I have a version just for him,
"I got Jasper, I got Jasper, I got my cat who could ask for anything more."
Ok I might have just outed myself as a crazy person here but it's a fun kind of crazy.
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