Ружена Сикора Любовь вошла Gershwin in Russian Love Walked In

Nothing seemed to matter any more
Didn't care what I was headed for
Time was standing still
No one counted till
There came a knock, knock, knocking at the door

Love walked right in and drove the shadows away

Love walked right in and brought my sunniest day
One magic moment, and my heart seemed to know
That love said "Hello!"
Though not a word was spoken

One look and I forgot the gloom of the past
One look and I had found my future at last
One look and I had found a world completely new

When love walked in with you

This is the only vocal version of this amazing, poignant song (one of my favorite Gershwins) that I actually like. There's an astonishing piano version with Jack Gibbons, but when you try to find a singer who can do it justice, you discover dud after dud. People mess with it too much, when all you have to do is sing it, sing the notes. Gershwin songs are so powerful, they almost sing themselves, in just about any language.

So I included the lyrics in English. It's interesting to note that Gershwin's parents were Russian immigrants who fled the pogroms and started a new life in America, which was then called the Land of Opportunity. (I won't get into what it has become.) George's birth name was Jacob Gershovitz. Gershwin the genius still prevails, but it's interesting to find unlikely versions among the thousands or perhaps millions of recordings in which singers have tried to capture the magic.

And I cannot resist including the Jack Gibbons version, which appears at the end of this video following his kick-ass version of Kicking the Clouds Away (which is a pocket version of Rhapsody in Blue, teeming with all that edgy urban energy and panache). The chord structure, it has been pointed out, has similarities to impressionists like Debussy. George was more humble than most people realized, and once told Maurice Ravel that he would like to study composition with him. He answered, "But then you'd be a second-rate Ravel rather than a first-rate Gershwin." So true. George remained first-rate all the way. 

By the way! Re-watching this, I see that there are snippets of home movies featuring George at the piano (he made very few recordings, unfortunately, and in his brief movie appearances he looks like a ghost), and the man sitting next to him is no less than Arnold Schoenberg, the famous "modern" composer. At the time, he was virtually unknown, having just arrived in New York from Nazi-occupied Germany. George helped pay his passage to America, thus escaping persecution and certain death. In essence, Gershwin saved his life.

They're obviously pals, providing yet more proof that other composers instantly recognized his genius. It's not just brilliant technique, but that universal quality which invited people into his music. We all wanted to be a part of it - we all wanted to sit around the piano and just listen to him play - and we can still do it, given Jack Gibbon's uncanny way of channeling Gershwin's energy. 

I feel like I was there - and maybe I still am.