Rhapsody in Blue first appeared in 1924, at a concert for experimental modern music put together by the band leader Paul Whiteman. He had asked George Gershwin to compose a "jazz concerto" for the concert a few months before it was due. Gershwin was unconvinced - he had never written a full score, only tunes which other people then arranged for orchestra. So Whiteman offered the services of his arranger, Ferde Grofe, to help with the orchestration. Gershwin agreed, wrote a few tunes down, and then put the drafts to one side while he worked on other music. Five weeks before the concert, a friend pointed out a paragraph in a newspaper advertising the concert, which mentioned George's "jazz concerto" - and Gershwin had to start writing rapidly! Grofe had the orchestration finished by 4th February, just in time for the concert on 12th February 1924.

Gershwin played the piano solo part - he had not written it all down, and made up some of it on the night. It was the last piece in the concert and took the audience by storm. Everyone who was anyone was there, even serious composers like Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. And everyone loved it (except for Stravinsky, who was rude about it, but he was rude about most other composers' work). The rest, as they say, is history.