Greatest Love Songs Ever: #17 “Someone to Watch Over Me”
By Tom Quiner, Board President, Pulse Life Advocates
I introduce you to the greatest American songwriter in history: George Gershwin. He collaborated with his lyricist brother, the great Ira Gershwin, in creating a shockingly expansive library of classic love songs, in spite of his abbreviated life.
George Gershwin died in 1937 of an undiagnosed brain tumor at the age of thirty-eight. He left behind a legacy of delightful love songs that are sung to this very day, and that will be sung by every generation to come.
Here’s a quick list of some of the best:
A Foggy Day
But Not For Me
Embraceable You
For You, For Me, For Evermore
He Loves and She Loves
How Long Has This Been Going On?
I’ve Got a Crush on You
(I’ve Got) Beginner’s Luck
Love is Here to Stay
’S Wonderful
The Man I Love
They Can’t Take That Away From Me …
… which leads us to today’s entry, “Someone To Watch Over Me,” #17 in our countdown of the 52 Greatest Love Songs Ever.
The song touches on the same theme, safety, as an earlier song on this list, “All I Ask of You.”
Sanctuary
Love provides a safe haven from the vicissitudes of life. We all want “someone to watch over me”, whether it is our Father in Heaven or our lover. Where “All I Ask” explores the theme with power and passion, Ira Gershwin provides a more whimsical take on this idea with his superbly crafted lyrics:
“There’s a somebody I’m longin’ to see,
I hope that he turns out to be,
Someone who’ll watch over me.
I’m a little lamb who’s lost in the wood,
I know I could always be good,
To one who’ll watch over me.”
Note the use of interior rhymes as well as the more common exterior ones. As I’ve said in previous entries in this series, the likes of an Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, or Irving Berlin were all impeccable craftsmen when it came to their lyrics.
They polished their words until everything fit tightly together like a Swiss timepiece
Sloppy lyrics define today’s songs
By contrast, modern lyricists are sloppy. Take the biggest songwriter of her generation, Taylor Swift. She wrote a very good love song in 2008, “You Belong With Me.” But the lyrics aren’t tight. An example:
“But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts,
She’s Cheer Captain, and I’m on the bleachers,
Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find,
That what you’re looking for has been here the whole time.”
’T-shirts’ and ‘bleachers’ is a weak rhyme, as is ‘find’ and ‘time.’
Ed Sheerin, Olivia Rodrigo, and other songwriting contemporaries of Swift do the same. Their rhymes aren’t precise and consistent. Their fans don’t care.
Right or wrong, I’m a purist and love the virtuosity displayed by the old school lyricists.
“Someone To Watch Over Me” delights with George’s flowing melody and a tightly constructed lyric the explores the yearning in our hearts for a loving relationship that offers us sanctuary. The song was the centerpiece of the Gershwin’s Broadway musical, “Oh, Kay!”
Interestingly, George wrote the song to be performed in a bouncy, uptempo rhythm as you can hear in the 1926 recording (below) featuring Gershwin on piano.
Gershwin plays “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
But no one does it that way anymore, because it makes such a lovely, flowing ballad.
I prefer hearing the song sung by a female vocalist, because it preserves the original verse written for the English chanteuse, Gertrude Lawrence, who introduced the song in the original production. The verse goes like this:
“Although he may not be
the man some girls think of as handsome,
To my heart, he carries the key.”
I love the “man some” and “handsome” rhymes!
Willie Nelson recorded a much-loved cover of the song on his “Stardust” album in 1978. But he left off the great verse that sets up the rest of the song.
Willie Nelson sings “Someone To Watch Over Me”
Linda Ronstadt recorded my favorite cover of the song on her 1983 studio album, “What’s New,” with another masterful arrangement by Nelson Riddle (top of page). As I compiled this list, my first draft included two additional Gershwin songs, “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” and “Embraceable You.” I ended up dropping them simply because I was afraid my list was too ‘Gershwin’ top-heavy.
Here’s the thing about George Gershwin: he wrote incredible melodies. He was one of the all-time great melodists, topped by maybe Mozart, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky (the best). His rhythms were creative, forged in the dynamic roaring twenties when American music began to find its voice.
Just listen to Gershwin’s 1924 composition, Rhapsody in Blue. If you don’t know it, the piece blends jazz with classical music idioms. It forges 5 spectacular musical themes together into a brash melange of American musical exuberance. I came out of my seat the first time I heard it (and I was sitting alone in a room)!
The death of George Gershwin
George Gershwin’s death shocked the nation. The writer, John O’Hara, wrote upon hearing the news:
“George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to.”
Nor do we, because Gershwin lives on through his beautiful music.
Leonard Bernstein idolized Gershwin. He wrote:
”The Sunday morning [July 11, 1937] when I heard on the radio that George Gershwin had died, I was absolutely devastated. I tried to get out of playing [at summer camp, where I was swimming and music counselor].
I came into the dining room where all the parents were sitting, flattering and chattering, and instead of playing “Tea for Two” … I held up my hand, or played a chord, or something to get them quiet. Then I announced that Gershwin had died, that he had been an idol of mine, and that I was going to play his second Prelude as a memorial. They all put down their silverware and listened as I played this very slow, very sad music. As the last notes wafted away, I rose from the piano and left the hall in silence.
That was the first inkling I ever had of the power of music, of its possibilities for control. It was a great turning point for me. Perhaps the most theatrical thing in the world is a roomful of hushed people, and the more people there are who are silent, the more dramatic it is.”
Take a listen:
Leonard Bernstein plays Gershwin’s 2nd Prelude
Gershwin songs fill me with life. Their love songs are here to stay, to play off of one of their song titles. Another one of their song titles is, “Love is Sweeping the Country.” I think of that title every time I hear about a baby being born to a family or friend. Each child is made in God’s image. And God IS Love.
The more babies, the more love sweeping the country.
Now do you understand why Pulse Life Advocates devotes time promoting love songs? Babies are not just lovable. They are infused with the spark of God’s Divine Love. A simple love song is such a simple way to let people get back in touch with their own humanity that God gave them even before they were “knitted in their mother’s womb.
Thanks to George and Ira Gershwin, a whole lotta love is still sweeping the country through the power of a song.
Next week shifts back to Country music for a love song everybody loves. See you then!
[Keep the love coming with your gift to Pulse Life Advocates!]
