The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: The Way You Look Tonight

The song of the day for Saturday, February 1, 2014 is “The Way You Look Tonight.”

About This Song

Today’s song, “The Way You Look Tonight” is one of Jerome Kern’s most beautiful songs, with wonderful lyrics by Dorothy Fields. They wrote this song for the 1936 film Swing Time, starring Fred Astaire (who introduced the song) and Ginger Rogers.

About This Version

Today’s version of “The Way You Look Tonight” is from Bennett’s 1958 album Long Ago And Far Away and was arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol. Bennett sings this song in most of his concerts and it’s always a show-stopper, with great heart and emotional depth. This author never tires of hearing it; I hope you never tire of it either. It’s one of the greatest songs in the American Songbook sung by its greatest proponent.

http://open.spotify.com/track/1cIPfxkVrIglSgpYCtYyCN
“The Way You Look Tonight,” as well as the album Long Ago and Far Away, is available from iTunes.

As it’s Saturday, here’s your video: Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap singing today’s song, from the Elvis Costello Spectacle, from December 2008:

And if you have time for another video, here’s the scene from Swing Time, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers:

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Song of the Day: The Way You Look Tonight

The song of the day for Saturday, December 7, 2013 is “The Way You Look Tonight.”

About This Song

Today’s song, “The Way You Look Tonight,” was written by two of America’s greatest songwriters: Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. The song was written for the 1936 film Swing Time and was, of course, originally introduced by Fred Astaire. In 1936, the song was also recorded by Bing Crosby with his current wife Dixie Lee and also Billie Holiday. It has been steadily recorded ever since, with major jazz and popular recordings up to today.

Even though Fields’ lyrics are exquisite, “The Way You Look Tonight” has had many fine instrumental recordings as well, including those by Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson.

Dorothy Fields is quoted as saying “the first time Jerry played that melody for me I went out and started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn’t stop, it was so beautiful.”

I couldn’t agree more.

About This Version

Today’s version of “The Way You Look Tonight” was recorded in 1958 for the album Long Ago and Far Away. The album was arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol; his orchestra was used for the album as well. Bennett made another wonderful recording of this song in 1997 for the movie My Best Friend’s Wedding; this version is included on the 50/60 Years: The Artistry of Tony Bennett (which I featured a couple of months ago; you can read that post here). But today I find it interesting to listen to Mr. Bennett singing his original version and then the one fifty years later, on our YouTube Saturday video.

Tony Bennett sings this song regularly in concert and it always moves the audience to tears, including your opinionated author. At one concert, a woman I didn’t even know cried on my shoulder after he sang this song. I have never heard anyone sing any song with so much emotional depth and heart as Tony Bennett singing this song in concert.

http://open.spotify.com/track/1cIPfxkVrIglSgpYCtYyCN
“The Way You Look Tonight,” as well as the album Long Ago and Far Away, is available from iTunes.

It’s YouTube Saturday again, and so we’re featuring a Tony Bennett video today. The song of the day version was recorded in 1958. This video was recorded fifty years later, in 2008 on an Elvis Costello television special. Mr. Bennett is accompanied by Bill Charlap.

And today we’ll double down … here’s Fred and Ginger:

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Song of the Day: The Way You Look Tonight

The song of the day for Saturday, October 5, 2013 is “The Way You Look Tonight.”

About This Song

Today’s song is from two of America’s greatest songwriters: Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. “The Way You Look Tonight” was written for the 1936 film Swing Time, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The lyricist Dorothy Fields said that “the first time Jerry played that melody for me I went out and started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn’t stop, it was so beautiful.” I agree with Ms. Fields: it’s one of the most beautiful songs in the American Songbook.

“The Way You Look Tonight” has been widely recorded since its release by both jazz and popular performers. Tony Bennett first recorded this song for his 1958 album Long Ago and Far Away.

About This Version

For today’s version, we are returning to Rarities discs from the Complete Collection, this time volume 2. Bennett recorded this version with the Ralph Sharon Trio for the film My Best Friend’s Wedding, which was released in 1997. I love this arrangement and hope you do as well.

http://open.spotify.com/track/7yED4n2U8RR5LKZVmisiev
“The Way You Look Tonight,” as well as all of the songs on Rarities, Outtakes & Other Delights, Volume 2, is available from iTunes.

As today is Saturday and we hope you have a little more spare time than usual, here’s a video of Tony Bennett singing this song accompanied by his wonderful guitarist Gray Sargent:

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The legendary Tony Bennett performs a unique concert for BBC One in the intimate setting of LSO St Lukes, London. Accompanied by a four piece band Bruce Barth on piano, Gray Sargent on guitar, Harold Jones on drums and Paul Langosch on double bass Bennett performs classic numbers including The Way You Look Tonight (Jerome Kern).

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Song of the Day: On The Sunny Side of the Street

The song of the day for Monday, September 2, 2013 is “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

About This Song

“On the Sunny Side of the Street” was written in 1930 for Lew Leslie’s International Revue, with music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. The song quickly became a jazz standard and was recorded by Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Willie Nelson. In addition to this recording, Tony Bennett also recorded it as a duet with Willie Nelson on Duets II.

About This Version

Today’s version is from one my favorite of Tony’s albums from the late 1960s: the 1967 Tony Makes It Happen! The entire album was arranged and conducted by Marion Evans and was produced by Howard Roberts. The entire album is really terrific, but other standouts include “The Lady’s In Love With You,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “Old Devil Moon.” Highly recommended by the opinionated author at The Year of Tony Bennett.

http://open.spotify.com/track/6hINWgC3EgCfjis27zY9Gq
“On The Sunny Side of the Street,” as well as the album Tony Makes It Happen!, is available from iTunes and Amazon.com.

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Song of the Day: Remind Me

The song of the day for Wednesday, August 28, 2013 is “Remind Me.”

About This Song

Today’s song was composed by Jerome Kern and featured lyrics by Dorothy Fields. “Remind Me” was written for the 1940 film One Night in the Tropics. The song is typically performed by women; recordings include those by Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, June Christy, Doris Day and Jeri Southern.

About This Version

“Remind Me” is from Tony Bennett’s 1972 album With Love, which was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon. The album was recorded in London and produced by Jimmy Wisner. I’m a big fan of Farnon’s work with Tony Bennett, starting with the 1968 album Snowfall, which may very well be one of the best Christmas albums ever recorded, and the 1971 live recording Get Happy with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Farnon had a great feel for Bennett’s voice in his arrangements and the results were wonderful.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2OOYgAiO1Qplp18lhAl89p
“Remind Me,” as well as the entire With Love album, is available from iTunes and Amazon.com.

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