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The "rhythm changes" chord progression, used in compositions as wide ranging as Parker’s Anthropology and the Flintstones Theme, is named after George Gershwin’s 1930 song I Got Rhythm.

Was this song the first to use this chord progression or did it merely popularise it?

Joe Germuska
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Uri Granta
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1 Answers1

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There's a whole Wikipedia article devoted to it. The consensus seems to be that George Gershwin was in fact the originator.

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    Unless I'm missing something, the article only seems to cover the use of rhythm changes in jazz. It attributes the rise of the changes to (among other things) the early popularity of I Got Rhythm as a jazz standard, but I can't see any mention of whether the changes had been used in any non-jazz composition prior to I Got Rhythm. – Uri Granta Jun 04 '15 at 16:28
  • The original I Got Rhythm (1930) was Tin Pan Alley: syncopated and jazzy, yes, but not actually jazz. E.g. listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR0-LeL11lQ. It also has a slight ragtime feel; indeed, the bridge is pure ragtime progression. It's therefore not beyond the realms of possibility that the chord progression had been used before. – Uri Granta Jun 05 '15 at 14:00