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At-A-Glance

Composed: 1931

About this Piece

Following the success of their Broadway hit Girl Crazy, George and Ira Gershwin along with librettist Guy Bolton were hired by Fox Film Corporation to produce Delicious for the silver screen. The film marked the Gershwins’ first trip to Hollywood, and the romantic comedy followed a Scottish immigrant played by Janet Gaynor as she tries to make it in New York, gets in trouble with the law, and joins up with a group of immigrant musicians.

Though not a commercial success, Delicious offered a handful of memorable songs and an extended orchestral section titled Rhapsody in Rivets that George Gershwin was taken with and expanded into his Second Rhapsody. “Somebody from Somewhere” was sung by Gaynor’s protagonist—though made famous by Ella Fitzgerald’s timeless recording—and shows a lot of the Gershwins’ trademark style, including clever wordplay, lush orchestral textures, and an extended intro before the key changes and the tune locks in, which functions almost like an operatic recitative and aria.