The song of the day for Wednesday, March 4, 2020, is “The Way You Look Tonight.”
About This Song
“The Way You Look Tonight” was written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields for the 1936 film Swing Time; the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the year. Dorothy Fields remarked “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.” Dorothy Fields was the first woman to win an Oscar for songwriting. It’s a magnificent love song that has found a strong position as a jazz standard, with recordings by Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Mel Tormé, and Frank Sinatra.
About This Version
Tony Bennett recorded this song (in only one take, it’s said) for the 1997 movie My Best Friend’s Wedding. This recording is included in Rarities, Outtakes & Other Delights, Vol. 2, which was included in the 2011 Complete Collection box set.
Last night I was looking for something to watch on TV that had nothing to do with the coronavirus or the election. I found, free on Amazon Prime, the biographical movie about Jerome Kern: Till The Clouds Roll By, released in 1946. The movie is rather cheesy, but the music was wonderful. Great orchestrations and fantastic singers including Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, June Allyson, Lena Horne, and many more. So, I’ve been in a Jerome Kern mood all day and that always means “The Way You Look Tonight.”
“The Way You Look Tonight,” as well as Rarities, Outtakes & Other Delights, Vol. 2, is available from iTunes.