The Way You Look Tonight

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The Way You Look Tonight (Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields)

Excerpts from the WICN.org Song of the Week feature:

In the RKO musical comedy Swing Time, Fred Astaire, accompanying himself, sings “The Way You Look Tonight” to Ginger Rodgers while she is in another room shampooing her hair. Charmed by his declaration of love, she emerges from the bathroom in an old robe and stands behind him at the piano, forgetting that her head is covered in soapsuds (actually whipped cream from the RKO commissary). As he sings the last line, “Just the way you look tonight,” he turns and is startled to see her there with her lather-covered head. When she realizes how she must look, she flees from the room in embarrassment, providing an amusing end to a romantic moment, a frequent occurrence in an Astaire/Rodgers film. Swing Time was the sixth of ten Astaire and Rodgers musicals, and is considered by many to be their best.

“The Way You Look Tonight” has no verse, which is not unusual in songs Kern wrote for films, but it is a long song at 44-bars. When Fields first heard the music, reportedly she recalled, “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.”

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Swing Time (1936) — sung by Astaire, seated at a piano, while Ginger is busy shampooing her hair in another room.

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Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra, vocal: Billie Holiday — Irving Randolph, t / Vido Musso, cl / Ben Webster, ts / Teddy Wilson, p / Allan Reuss, g / Milton Hinton, sb / Gene Krupa, d / Billie Holiday, v. New York, October 21, 1936.

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Benny Goodman and his Orchestra –  Peggy Lee, vocal (date unknown)

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The Jaguars – Charles Middleton, Val Poliuto, Sonny Chaney and Manny Chavez

The Jaguars – 1956

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Mel Tormé with Marty Paich and his Dek-tette — from Sings Fred Astaire; album recorded 10-11 November 1956, arranged and conducted by Marty Paich

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Bobby Hackett — instrumental track from his 1957 LP Rendezvous, arranged and conducted by Glenn Osser

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Frank Sinatra – recorded 27 January 1964 with arrangement by Nelson Riddle.

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Tony Bennett

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Michael Bublé – the song originally appeared on Bublé’s self-titled debut album, released 11 February 2003. I don’t know the date of this performance. The album track was not one of the three singles released. Also, wikipedia mentions official promotional videos only for Sway and Moondance (the latter not released a single) from the debut.

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Harry Connick, Jr. – from Your Songs – 2009