I've Got a Crush on You is a 1928 composition by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, originally written for the Broadway musical Treasure Girl, where it was introduced by Clifton Webb and Mary Hay. When that show had a disappointing run, the Gershwins salvaged the number for the revised 1930 production of Strike Up the Band, a satirical musical about a war over Swiss chocolate, where it was performed by Doris Carson and Gordon Smith. This practice of recycling strong material from failed shows was characteristic of George Gershwin's prolific Broadway output during the late 1920s. The melody is playful and ascending, conveying infatuation through a lighthearted rhythmic lilt and sweet, sentimental phrasing that lend themselves equally to intimate crooning and swinging interpretation. The song entered the jazz and Great American Songbook canon through a series of landmark vocal recordings. Sarah Vaughan first recorded it for Musicraft in 1946 and returned to it twice more, including on Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin (1957) and the live Gershwin Live! album with Michael Tilson Thomas (1982). Frank Sinatra cut a notable version for Columbia in 1947 featuring Bobby Hackett on trumpet and revisited it on Nice 'n' Easy (1960). Ella Fitzgerald recorded it three times across four decades, including on her definitive George and Ira Gershwin Song Book (1959). The tune has also appeared in several films, including Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979), performed by the New York Philharmonic.
