“Love is Here to Stay” is part of what’s known as the Great American Songbook and is the first song featured on my cd, “Back 2 Classic.”
Written in 1938 by brothers George and Ira Gershwin for the movie The Goldwyn Follies, was and is still a popular jazz standard. It’s most memorable appearance was as the theme for the 1951 movie “An American in Paris’, and many years later was used in the 1995 film ‘Forget Paris’. Originally titled “It’s Here to Stay”, and then “Our Love Is Here to Stay”, the song was ultimately published as “Love is Here to Stay.” This song was the last completed composition by George Gershwin before he died, with lyrics later written by Ira. This song has been performed and recorded by some of the greatest singers and musicians of our time including, Gene Kelly, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Doris Day, Carmen McRae, Billie Holiday, Oscar Peterson, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Barry Manilow, and many more. I fell in love with this classic when I heard it sung by Diana Ross in the 1979 motion picture Lady Sings the Blues. But my all-time favorite version was recorded by the one and only Ella Fitzgerald.
Ella could and did sing any and everything superbly well. To me she is one of the greatest singers of all time and any jazz standard I look for, you can bet, Ella sang it and that’s usually the version I like most. Here is Ella singing another popular jazz classic and favorite, “How High the Moon.”
