"Someone to Watch Over Me" is a song written in 1926 by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, who was helped by Howard Dietz, who created the song's title. It was first performed in the musical Oh, Kay! (1926). The song was originally sung on Broadway by English actress Gertrude Lawrence, who held a rag doll during a heartfelt solo scene. The musical had over 200 performances in New York and received similar praise in London in 1927, with the song being its main highlight. Lawrence later released the song as a single with a moderate tempo, and it reached number 2 on the music charts in 1927.

Origin

The song "Someone to Watch Over Me" was first written by George Gershwin for the musical Oh, Kay! as a fast, lively tune marked "playful" in the sheet music. However, in the 1930s and 1940s, singers performed it in a slower, more emotional style, which became the most common version. The first widely known slow version was recorded by Lee Wiley in 1939, followed by Margaret Whiting in 1944.

Howard Dietz, who helped write other songs for Oh, Kay! while Ira Gershwin was in the hospital for six weeks due to a ruptured appendix, claimed he contributed lyrics to "Someone to Watch Over Me." He was not listed in the song credits and received little payment for his work. In his 1974 memoir, Dietz said he suggested the song's title, a detail later confirmed by Ira Gershwin in his 1959 book Lyrics on Several Occasions.

In 1926 and 1927, Lawrence performed the song in a solo scene at the start of Act II. She wore a maid’s uniform and sang while holding a rag doll. George Gershwin described the doll using words for a boy in 1934, saying, "I don’t know where he is now… He certainly did his part well." Gershwin found the doll in a toy shop in Philadelphia and gave it to Lawrence as a prop to highlight her character’s vulnerability. This addition surprised the play’s director.

Recordings and features

The song was recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1946 for his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, in 1954 for the film Young At Heart, and again during the Nice 'n' Easy sessions in 1960. Sinatra’s recordings helped make the slow, romantic style of the song popular. "Someone to Watch Over Me" was also performed by many other artists, including Ella Fitzgerald (1950 and 1959), Sarah Vaughan (1957), Dakota Staton (1960), Barbra Streisand (1965), Julie Andrews (1968), Ray Charles (1969), Willie Nelson (1978), Sinéad O'Connor (1992), Rickie Lee Jones (2000), Elton John (2002), and Amy Winehouse (2008). Nelson Riddle created two rich orchestral arrangements: one for Keely Smith in 1959 on the album Swingin' Pretty, and another for Linda Ronstadt in 1983 on What's New, which won a Grammy Award. The song was also featured in the film Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), with vocals by Jean Louisa Kelly in the movie and Julia Fordham on the film’s soundtrack. More than 1,800 recordings of the song have been released, nearly all performed in the slow, emotional ballad style.