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Rhapsody in Blue | 17:14The Bobs - Topic | 851 subscribers | 1,957 views | October 19, 2015

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Firecracker (1978) | 5:00 | YMO Unofficial12.7K subscribers | 892,132 views | September 12, 2015 | Track 2 on 'Yellow Magic Orchestra' (1978) | Written by Martin Denny

Reo Speedwagon - Roll With The ChangesDecember 31, 2012 | reospeedwagon0910

WOW. George Gershwin had some ridiculous fingers. This is, for the most part, faithful to Gershwin's 2-piano score. He plays this as a duo with himself (Gershwin actually overdubbed himself playing both parts). Thanks to Jack Gibbons for the correct information about this recording.

"When Rhapsody in Blue premiered at New York's Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924, most people couldn't wait for the evening to be over. The piece was scheduled near the end of a long program called "An Experiment in Modern Music." After two sluggish hours, the audience was bored, restless, and drenched in sweat due to the hall's broken ventilation system. But then, a lone clarinet pierced through the orchestra, fizzing upward like a fountain of champagne. Suddenly, everyone was riveted. For the next 17 minutes, George Gershwin, an unknown 26-year-old composer, caressed and pounded the piano at center stage,...

There’s a spanking new version of “Porgy and Bess” on the way, one that seeks to transform the classic 1935 opera into a commercial Broadway musical. To that end, the director Diane Paulus and the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks have added new scenes, punched up some dialogue, invented biographical details and — most radically — added a more upbeat ending. Such tinkering with the iconic Gershwin work was bound to draw fire from some quarters, and indeed it has, following the publication of an Arts & Leisure article by Patrick Healy about the production, which stars Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis....

It doesn't carry quite as much of a surprise factor as it might have some years back, before so many pop/rock stars felt the urge to sing standards from the great American Songbook, but the album by the near-legendary Brian Wilson due out on Tuesday certainly commands attention. A Disney Pearl release, "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin" -- it could have been called "Gershwin Goes Surfin' " -- puts the iconic leader of the Beach Boys and a great deal of that group's vintage sound into a blender with some of the 20th century's best loved songs. It's very much a...

Mark Steyn: A music book that's not muzak - Wilfrid Sheed's 'The House That George Built' moves from one memorable riff to another MARK STEYN | September 10, 2007 | "You can't receive all your inspiration from listening to old records," writes Wilfrid Sheed. "It's like receiving your fresh air in cans." I know what he means. Today, in 2007, we understand that It Had To Be You and The Way You Look Tonight and My Funny Valentine are great songs. They've been declared to be so, over and over. But I wonder if we'd have figured it out at...