Song of the Day: Dancing in the Dark

The song of the day for Saturday, December 26, 2020, is “Dancing in the Dark.”

About This Song

“Dancing in the Dark” Dwas written for the 1931 revue The Band Wagon and is widely considered to be the finest of the songs written by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz. Alec Wilder in American Popular Song describes it as “… a very strong song with a superb, poetic lyric.”

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Dancing in the Dark” for his 1961 album My Heart Sings. The album was arranged and conducted by Ralph Burns. Burns first worked with Bennett on the 1959 Hometown, My Town album (one of your author’s favorite albums) and returned for this album, with spectacular results.

“Dancing in the Dark,” as well as My Heart Sings, is available from Apple Music.

How can I talk about “Dancing in the Dark” without mentioning Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in the 1953 film Dancing in the Dark? Cyd Charisse was trained as a ballet dancer and her work with Astaire in this film is lyrical and quite beautiful.