• Biography

Biography

Kay Swift (1897-1993) was the first woman to write the complete score to a Broadway musical -- the hit showFine and Dandy(1930). Trained as a classical musician, she tried her hand at popular music at the suggestion of George Gershwin (left), whom she met in 1925. Her best known songs are "Can't We Be Friends?", from the 1929 Little Show on Broadway, and two songs from Fine and Dandy the following year: "Can This Be Love?" and "Fine and Dandy." Her lyricist was her first husband, banker James Paul Warburg, who used the pen name Paul James. Their marriage ended in 1934 as a consequence of her long involvement with George Gershwin.