George and Ira Gershwin in Hollywood motion picture soundtrack anthology.

Although George and Ira Gershwin were already well established as Broadway's hottest and finest writing team, they had to wait until the movies started talking to come westward to work their magic in films. This two-disc, 40-track deluxe anthology is largely produced through the auspices of Turner Classic Movies, which now owns the enormous MGM library. Along with pre-recorded soundtrack acetates -- free from dialogue and sound effects -- from RKO (the first pre-recording playback discs from A Damsel in Distress and Shall We Dance), this collection brings for the first time to compact disc items like "Delishious," "Summertime," and "135th Street Blues (Blue Monday)," Oscar Levant's "Third Prelude," and Ray Heindorf's original "Overture" from Gershwin's biopic Rhapsody in Blue. With the original film appearances of "Swanee," "Love Is Here to Stay," "Fascinating Rhythm," "The Man I Love," "Embraceable You," "They All Laughed," "A Foggy Day," "But Not for Me," "Let's Call the Thing Off," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Strike Up the Band," "Oh Lady, Be Good," and "I Got Rhythm" aboard, this compilation stands as textbook American popular songwriting of the highest order. Produced by Michael Feinstein, George Feltenstein, and Bradley Flanagan, this was a labor of love, and the work put into finding the rare one-of-a-kind playback discs was the extra mile gone in making this such a thorough overview within the confines of a two-disc anthology. And no, they really don't write them like that anymore. ~ Cub Koda