| "The Way You Look To-night[1]" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
_record_label.jpg) Label Cover, seen much use and wear | ||||
| Single byFred Astaire | ||||
| B-side | "Pick Yourself Up" | |||
| Published | July 24, 1936[1] byChappell & Co.[2] | |||
| Released | August 1936 | |||
| Recorded | July 26, 1936[3] | |||
| Studio | Los Angeles,California | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 3:09 | |||
| Label | Brunswick 7717[4] | |||
| Composer | Jerome Kern | |||
| Lyricist | Dorothy Fields | |||
| Fred Astaire singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| "The Way You Look Tonight" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
_label.jpg) | ||||
| Single byThe Lettermen | ||||
| from the album A Song for Young Love | ||||
| B-side | "That's My Desire" | |||
| Released | June 13, 1961 | |||
| Recorded | 1961 | |||
| Studio | Capitol (Hollywood) | |||
| Genre | Pop,Easy listening | |||
| Length | 2:21 | |||
| Label | Capitol 4586 | |||
| Producers | Dorothy Fields, Jerome Kern | |||
| The Lettermen singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"The Way You Look To-night" is a song from the filmSwing Time that was performed byFred Astaire and composed byJerome Kern with lyrics written byDorothy Fields. It won theAcademy Award for Best Original Song in 1936.[5][6] 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."[7]
In the movie, Astaire sang "The Way You Look To-night" toGinger Rogers while she was washing her hair in an adjacent room.[5] Astaire's recording was a top seller in 1936. Other versions that year were byGuy Lombardo andTeddy Wilson withBillie Holiday.[4]
The song was sung by Fred Astaire in the 1936 filmSwing Time in the key ofD major,[8] but it is typically performed inE-flat major with a modulation toG-flat major.[9]
It was first copyrighted on March 17, 1936 as "Way (The) you look to-night; song from I won't dance", and was unpublished ("I Won't Dance" was a song from the 1935 filmRoberta by Kern and Fields). The next copyright on July 24, 1936 was fromSwing Time and was published. Both were renewed in 1963.[1]
Fred Astaire recorded "The Way You Look To-night" inLos Angeles on July 26, 1936.[10]Bing Crosby and his wifeDixie Lee recorded the song as a duet on August 19.[11]
To take advantage of the song's success, pianistTeddy Wilson broughtBillie Holiday into a studio 10 weeks after the filmSwing Time was released. Holiday was 21 when she recorded "The Way You Look Tonight" with a small group led by Wilson in October 1936.
A number ofBritish dance bands also made contemporary cover recordings of the song:Ambrose (with vocals bySam Browne),Roy Fox (with vocals byDenny Dennis), Tommy Kinsman,Harry Roy,Carroll Gibbons and theSavoy Hotel Orpheans (vocal byGeorge Melachrino) andJay Wilbur (with vocals bySam Costa).[12]
| Chart (1961) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles (The Official Charts Company) | 36 |
| USBillboard Hot 100 | 13 |
| USBillboardEasy Listening[15] | 3 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[16] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
