Oh, Lady Be Good! album "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook" (1959), it was sung as a ballad arranged by Nelson Riddle. Oh, Lady Be Good! "Oh, Lady Be Good!" is a 1924 song by George and Ira Gershwin. It was introduced by Walter Catlett in the Broadway musical "Lady, Be Good!" written by Guy Bolton, Fred Thompson, and the Gershwin brothers and starring Fred and Adele Astaire. The song was also performed by the chorus in the film "Lady Be Good" (1941), although the film is unrelated to the musical. Recordings in 1925 were by Paul Whiteman, Carl Fenton, and
Fred Astaire Kern considered him the supreme male interpreter of his songs and Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer also admired his unique treatment of their work. And while George Gershwin was somewhat critical of Astaire's singing abilities, he wrote many of his most memorable songs for him. In his heyday, Astaire was referenced in lyrics of songwriters Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart and Eric Maschwitz and continues to inspire modern songwriters. Astaire was a songwriter, with "I'm Building Up to an Awful Letdown" (written with lyricist Johnny Mercer) reaching number four in the Hit Parade of 1936. He recorded his own "It's Just