Oh, So Nice!

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"Oh, So Nice!" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

George Gershwin described the song as an effort "to get the effect of a Viennese waltz in foxtrot time" with Ira relating that the lyric took "days and days" to write due to its many internal rhymes. Ira felt the song was a "waltz effect in foxtrot" with "short and definite" musical phrases. [1]

The song was introduced by Gertrude Lawrence and Paul Frawley as the characters Ann Wainwright and Neil Forrester in the 1928 musical Treasure Girl , where it was featured as a duet in the first act. [1] [2] It is sung when the characters encounter each other for the first time in the musical, the pair having formerly been lovers. [3] Lawrence Delbert Stewart, writing in The Gershwins: Words Upon Music, wrote that "Oh, So Nice!" was "so lovely...that one finds it difficult to believe that Miss Lawrence's role portrayed her as a malicious liar and a spoiled young woman". [1] Walter Rimler, in his A Gershwin Companion: A Critical Inventory & Discography describes the verse as "evocative and beautiful". [4] The New Yorker magazine described it as "effortlessly lovely" in 1959. [5] Howard Pollack felt the song was reminiscent of the Gershwin's earlier songs "Clap Yo' Hands" and "Let's Kiss and Make Up" through its attempt to capture a Viennese waltz in to a foxtrot tempo. [3] Pollock praised the song's "unprecedented suavity" with its "subtle metrical shifts throughout its main theme". [3] Pollock felt the melody of "Oh, So Nice!" was reminiscent of "Ohne mich" from Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier . [3]

Edward Jablonski felt that it was one of the "outstanding songs" from Treasure Girl along with "I've Got a Crush on You", "I Don't Think I'll Fall in Love Today" and "Where's the Boy?". [6]

Notable recordings

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Lawrence Delbert Stewart (1959). The Gershwins: Words Upon Music. Verve Records. p. 44.
  2. ↑ Dan Dietz (10 April 2019). The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 491. ISBN   978-1-5381-1282-3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Howard Pollack (15 January 2007). George Gershwin: His Life and Work. University of California Press. p. 426. ISBN   978-0-520-93314-9.
  4. ↑ Walter Rimler (1991). A Gershwin Companion: A Critical Inventory & Discography, 1916-1984. Popular Culture, Ink. p. 91. ISBN   978-1-56075-019-2.
  5. ↑ The New Yorker. The New Yorker. 1959. p. 134.
  6. ↑ Edward Jablonski (1962). George Gershwin. Putnam. p. 156.
  7. ↑ Norbert Carnovale (2000). George Gershwin: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 185. ISBN   978-0-313-26003-2.
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