Verve Remixed - Carmen McRae - How Long Has This Been Going On (MJ Cole Remix)

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How Long Has This Been Going On?

• Written: 1927
• Music by: George Gershwin
• Words by: Ira Gershwin
• Written for but cut from Funny Face (show, 1927) then introduced on Broadway in Rosalie (show, 1928)

George and Ira Gershwin originally wrote "How Long Has This Been Going On?" for a scene in the 1927 musical at first titled Smarty, later, before its Broadway opening, changed to Funny Face. The early history of that show was a kind of "whose on first?" routine. 

The show's initial out-of-town tryout was in Philadelphia where it was called Smarty. "How Long Has This Been Going On?" was introduced there on October 11, 1927, by Adele Astaire and Stanley Ridges. 
Ira recalls in his memoir Lyrics on Several Occasions, that he and George wrote it (the words according to James Morris, having been written to fit the music) for a "situation" -- specifically, "a first kiss." Apparently, the song didn't go over very well with the Philadelphia audience and was cut, or more accurately replaced by "He Loves and She Loves."

Even Ira agreed to the change even though he believed "How Long Has This Been Going On?" to be the better song. Apparently, he didn't love all of his children the same. He certainly knew how important it was for a show (After all the show was the thing) that its songs "get over" and the evidence in Philadelphia was demonstrating that "How Long Has This Been Going On?" was not passing that test.
The core problem appeared to be Adele Astaire, who despite her consummate ability to portray the essence of the flapper, did not have a voice suited to the depth of this song.

By the time the show got to its next tryout venue, Atlantic City, the song was gone and so was Ridges, (replaced by Allan Kearns); and somewhere in there, perhaps during its third set of tryouts in Wilmington, Delaware, the show's title was also dropped in favor of Funny Face, after another of its songs. When Funny Face finally opened on Broadway on November 22, 1927, "How Long Has This Been Going On?" had been relegated to the Gershwintrunk. 

Ira recalls that the period of the tryouts was an unpleasant time of "recasting, rewriting, rehearsing, [and] recriminating -- [but] of rejoicing there was none" (Jablonski, p. 144). Adele's brother Fred Astaire, also one of the show's stars, called the time "agony."