Love Walked In is a 1937 composition by George Gershwin with lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin, written for the 1938 film The Goldwyn Follies. It was among the last songs George completed before his death from a brain tumor in July 1937, with Vernon Duke finishing the remaining score for the film. Ira Gershwin noted that George considered the melody Brahmsian in character, reflecting a lyrical warmth and harmonic richness that distinguishes it from the more rhythmically driven Gershwin standards. The song was introduced onscreen by Kenny Baker, playing a humble short-order cook who is oblivious to love's arrival, and it quickly climbed to the top of radio's Your Hit Parade. The melody moves with an ambulatory grace well suited to both ballad and uptempo treatments, and the final section features a slowly descending scale passage that mirrors the lyric's sense of wonder at discovering a world completely new. Louis Armstrong recorded a classic trumpet-and-vocal rendition in 1938 that recast the tune in a jazz idiom, while Dave Brubeck made it a personal favorite, featuring it in both octet and quartet settings with Paul Desmond. Percy Grainger's 1945 piano transcription further attests to the composition's appeal beyond the popular song format. Love Walked In endures as a widely performed entry in the Great American Songbook, bridging Gershwin's Broadway sophistication with an accessible romantic directness.
