The song of the day for Friday, August 6, 2021, is “The Way You Look Tonight.”

About Today

Jerome Kern’s “The Way You Look Tonight” is one of greatest love songs ever written and Tony’s versions of singing this song are quite wonderful and so it’s definitely on my list of Tony Bennett’s greatest recordings.

About This Song

“The Way You Look Tonight” was written in 1936 by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. It was introduced by Fred Astaire in the movie Swing Time; it 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.

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 version in 1997 with The Ralph Sharon Trio for the movie My Best Friend’s Wedding. The recording was collected on Rarities, Outtakes & Other Delights, Vol. 2 in the 2011 Complete Collection.

“The Way You Look Tonight,” as well as all of the songs on Rarities, Outtakes & Other Delights, Vol. 2 is available on Apple Music.