The song of the day for Saturday, June 4, 2016 is “The Way You Look Tonight.”

About This Song

Written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, “The Way You Look Tonight” was introduced by Fred Astaire in 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 has recorded this song several times, but my favorite of them all is from last year’s Grammy-winning album The Silver Lining: The Music of Jerome Kern, featuring the great Bill Charlap on piano. The recording is flawless, as is the song itself.

“The Way You Look Tonight,” as well as , is available from iTunes.

About Today

We have this wonderful video of Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap performing this song from their wonderful album, The Silver Lining: The Music of Jerome Kern.

About June

As some of you know, I was laid off from my job in April. Luckily, I found a new job which I started two weeks ago and am enjoying very much.

What I am not enjoying is being told a few days before I started my new job that I have to move, as the owner of house I’ve been leasing for years needs to sell the house. I am now in the throes of (1) going through my stuff and sloughing off things I no longer need or no longer fit in, (2) packing up the rest, (3) setting up change of addresses and (4) actually moving in a few weeks. With all that in mind, I may be taking some chunks of time off to pay attention to these mundane details. But never fear … it will only be temporary.

Meanwhile, wish us luck here in Portland. We’re looking at triple-digit temperatures this weekend. Ugh!