George Gershwin
Composer

Jacob Who? A Kid From The Big Apple

Yo yo yo, hold up, 'cause my story kicks off in New York City on 26 September 1898, and the birth certificate said Jacob Gershwine, which is wild, bruh! My folks were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, total legends, and my brother Ira the lyricist, plus Arthur and Frances, rounded out the crew, no cap! School? Peace out, homie, I bounced at 15 in 1913 and went slingin' tunes as a song plugger on Tin Pan Alley for fifteen bucks a week, ya feel me? Meanwhile I studied piano with Charles Hambitzer till he passed in 1918, so anybody claimin' I had zero training is talkin' straight-up nonsense, fam, deadass!

Swanee, Then Boom, Blue Everything

Aight, so 'Swanee' dropped in 1919 with lyrics by Irving Caesar, and bam, my first big national hit, y'all, sheesh! Then I started cookin' up Rhapsody in Blue on 7 January 1924, zero chill, pure fire, my dude! Ferde Grofé did the orchestrating, not me, so big props to that legend, who wrapped it up on 4 February, hella clutch, right? On 12 February 1924 at Aeolian Hall in New York, Paul Whiteman waved the stick while I pounded the piano at a concert called 'An Experiment in Modern Music,' which sounds like a science fair, lol!

New York Was My Whole Playground

New York City was my turf, fam, from Tin Pan Alley to the Broadway lights, and I strolled that town like a dude with a lifetime pass to every pizza joint, no joke! I wrote Oh, Kay! in 1926, and the title came from the composer Kay Swift, who I had a ten-year affair with, whoa, messy, right? We never married, though, so that's a whole decade of 'it's complicated,' bro, a straight-up soap opera! And get this, Of Thee I Sing in 1931 became the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but that shiny trophy went to George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and my brother Ira, not me, ouch, savage!

The Hits, Baby, The Hits

Okay, Rhapsody in Blue is the big one, y'all, and that opening swoops up like a cat sliding down a banister in reverse, I'm dyin'! It mixes jazzy swagger with the fancy concert-hall stuff, so it hits ya like a slice of cheesecake at a funeral, in the best way, bruh! My Piano Concerto in F followed in 1925, and then An American in Paris premiered at Carnegie Hall on 13 December 1928, and the reviews were mixed, lowkey rough, yo! But that's fine, 'cause even the haters couldn't stop humming it, which is basically a trophy, period!

Ravel Said Nope, Porgy Said Oof

Rumor has it that in the 1920s Ravel turned down teachin' me, and the story goes he figured lessons would turn me into a bad Ravel and wreck my melody mojo, savage move, fam! Then Porgy and Bess premiered on 30 September 1935 at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, with DuBose Heyward writin' the libretto, and I was hyped to the moon, no cap! It hit Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on 10 October and ran for 124 performances, but it bombed commercially at first, man, a total faceplant! People also argued over how it portrayed African Americans, and Virgil Thomson came at it with criticism, so the drama was real, y'all!

Hollywood Sunshine And A Weird Smell

After Porgy and Bess struggled, I packed up for Hollywood and wrote scores for Shall We Dance and A Damsel in Distress, plus some songs for The Goldwyn Follies, which came out after I was gone, crazy, huh? In early 1937 I had nasty headaches and kept smellin' burnin' rubber, which is the least cool perfume ever, bro! I collapsed on 9 July 1937 and got rushed to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, where doctors removed a big brain tumor, and nobody's totally sure what kind it was, ya know? I died on 11 July 1937 at just 38, and man, that's a brutal cut-off, I'm still salty about it!

Still Trending Since Forever

They buried me at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, but my tunes never stayed quiet, fam! 'They Can't Take That Away from Me' scored a posthumous Academy Award nomination, which is a pretty slick flex from beyond the grave, bruh! Porgy and Bess finally got its flowers too, helped by that 1976 Houston Grand Opera production, so take that, early flop, haha! In 1985 Ira and I got the Congressional Gold Medal, and since 2007 there's the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which is basically our names on a giant shiny sticker, no way!

Here's What I'm Handin' You

Listen, homie, I'm not askin' ya to wear a tuxedo or know a single fancy word, just press play and let it rip! I want ya to hear a city bouncin' in your chest, with jazz swagger and big-hearted tunes that make ya wanna grin like a goofball on a roller coaster! If a melody sticks in your head for three days straight, that's me high-fivin' ya from the great beyond, y'all! So crank up Rhapsody in Blue, kick back, and let the vibes hit ya, 'cause you're gonna love it, I swear!