Manhattan is part of the Great American Songbook, written by Richard Rodgers and the lyrics by Lorenz Hart for the 1925 revue Garrick Gaieties, it was first performed in front of plain curtain in the second act of a matinee show by performers Holloway and Cochran. Their performance stopped the show. They sang two encores, using all the lyrics they had. Knowing they had a hit, the songs writers convinced the Guild to present matinees during the next week where they sang Manhattan to crowds with standing–room only. It ran for 211 performances and within a year, the pair had three shows on Broadway simultaneously.

Though Manhattan was originally performed by Sterling Holloway in the 1925 theater production, it has been performed by many others including: the Supremes, Lee Wiley, Oscar Peterson, Blossom Dearie, Tony Martin, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Mel Torme, among many others.

During its time, Manhattan was made most famous by the 1929 short film Makers of Melody, a tribute to Rodgers and Hart sung by Ruth Tester and Allan Gould. Since then, it has been used in the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words And Music (1948), Two Tickets To Broadway (1951), Silent Movie (1976), Tempest (1982), The English Patient (1996), Mad Men ("New Amsterdam", 2007), and many other movies and TV shows. As times progress, the song's reference to whatever long-running show is popular on Broadway changes. The Ella Fitzgerald rendition from 1956 mentions My Fair Lady, as does Dinah Washington's 1959 recording, while Lee Wiley and Rosemary Clooney reference South Pacific.

This Great American Classic is often known as "We'll Have Manhattan" based on the opening line. It describes, in several choruses, the simple delights of Manhattan for a young couple in love. The joke is that these delights are really some of the worst, or cheapest, sights that New York has to offer; for example, the stifling, humid stench of the subway in summertime is described as "balmy breezes", while the noisy, grating pushcarts are "gently gliding by.” In later stanzas, everywhere the young couple goes must be free – Central Park, "the Bronx Zoo", Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and to view the much-criticized statue of "Civic Virtue". The final reference to Inspiration Point, along Old Riverside Drive, refers to how it was a well-known meeting place for lovers, and 'At The Station House we'll end" suggests they may be arrested for public indecency in Manhattan, and couldn't care less.