Welcome to Week 19 of The Definitive Version, a regular feature of my website. You can read more about the project here and read all past entries here.
Song: “Nice Work If You Can Get It” (1937)
Composer: George Gershwin
Lyricist: Ira Gershwin
Form: AABA
Standard Key: G Major.
Starting in 1918 and continuing until George Gershwin’s untimely death in 1937, George and Ira Gershwin collaborated on hundreds of songs for concert, stage, and film. Their last project, A Damsel in Distress, was a movie starring Fred Astaire – George died of a brain tumor while the film was in production. But among the songs they wrote for that movie was the classic “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”
It’s not as ubiquitous as their most famous songs, such as “But Not For Me” or “I Got Rhythm” or “Summertime” but “Nice Work If You Can Get It” is a classic by any measure, and features late-era George at his most inventive, and Ira with lyrics of sophistication and subtlety.
One of the things I like about Gershwin songs is that their verses often transcend the genre – many verses are forgettable and are deservedly left off in pop performance; this is not true of Gershwin songs. “Nice Work” features a wonderful verse with an interesting melody, clever lyrics, and an excellent entree into the song. (Compare with “But Not For Me” – I’m glad Chet Baker does that verse on trumpet, sans lyrics!)
Then we get to the chorus, a standards AABA format but with George cleverly pushing the boundaries. Despite being in the key of G Major, he starts with a B7 chord – his first chord is not diatonic! – and follows through the cycle of fifths to the tonic, in all dominants. Even the tonic chord is a G7, which keeps going to C7, and then follows a chromatic melodic descent to A7. The A7 sets up the final cadence so that we get to an actual tonic chord by the eighth bar.
All of this harmonic sophistication underlies a beautiful diatonic melody – easy to sing, not too rangy or complex. Indeed, I think that combination of harmonic sophistication and melodic ease is part of what makes Gershwin such a fabulous songwriter.
Definitive Version: Billie Holiday (1956, from Velvet Mood)
Form: Intro | Full chorus melody || Instrumental || Full chorus melody || tag
Feel: medium swing
Key: D-flat Major
Instrumentation: Rhythm section + trumpet & saxophone
This recording of “Nice Work” plays up the jazz end of the tune, with great solos from Jimmy Rowles and Harry “Sweets” Edison, and backing from a great rhythm section. The song is from an LP, so it’s not the rush of Billie Holiday’s 1937 recording, which needed to fit on a single.
And of course, Billie Holiday’s interpretation finds a perfect combination of freedom and straight delivery – she knows how to find the spaces in the music to make it breathe. As always, particularly on her later recordings, you can hear deep melancholy in her; it’s not out of place to have a little of that, even on such a peppy song – particularly with the last lyrics, “won’t you tell me how?” Nevertheless, the recording is light, fun, and in keeping with the spirit of the tune.
Also Recommended:
- Carmen McRae (on various compilations) I don’t know much about this recording – I can only find it on compilations. It was on the first jazz vocal cassette I ever owned, and stands for me as a definitive version.
- Mel Tormé (1956, from Sings Fred Astaire) Mel loved these concept albums exploring one performer’s oeuvre, and this is a classic example. Mel’s 1950’s singing is great – not as “velvet foggy” as earlier recordings, and more jazz-inflected, but still with the suppleness he lost as his voice matured and became brassier.
- Fred Astaire (1937, single) He introduced the song in A Damsel in Distress and while his delivery is a little bit early-Broadway for my taste, his sense of rhythm is, of course, excellent. And then watch his amazing dance from the movie!
- Ella Fitzgerald (1959, from The George and Ira Gershwin Songbook) Perhaps the most amazing of Ella’s songbooks, it contains some 59 songs and took eight months to record. Lush Nelson Riddle arrangements abound, and here she delivers the verse in a reflective tempo, accompanied primarily by jazz guitar, and then swings easily.
- Sarah Vaughan (1955, Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi) Swinging band, great singing, straightforward but compelling interpretation.
- Michael Feinstein (1996, from Nice Work If You Can Get It) Feinstein has made a great name for himself as a scholar and interpreter of classic American song – to the point of having clubs in his name in New York. And the arguably formative experience for him was working for Ira Gershwin in cataloguing his library. This album is one of the outcomes of that collaboration, and it’s telling that Feinstein named the album for this song.