| "Night and Day" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single byFred Astaire withLeo Reisman and His Orchestra | |
| B-side | I've Got You On My Mind[1] |
| Published | November 18, 1932 (1932-11-18) by Harms, Inc., New York[2] |
| Released | January 13, 1933 (1933-01-13) |
| Recorded | November 22, 1932 (1932-11-22)[3] |
| Studio | RCA Victor 24th Street, New York City[3] |
| Genre | Popular music,musical theatre |
| Length | 3:28[3] |
| Label | Victor 24193 |
| Songwriter | Cole Porter |
"Night and Day" is apopular song byCole Porter that was written for the 1932 musicalGay Divorce. It is perhaps Porter's most popular contribution to theGreat American Songbook and has been recorded by dozens of musicians.NPR says "within three months of the show's opening, more than 30 artists had recorded the song."[4]
Fred Astaire introduced "Night and Day" on November 29, 1932, whenGay Divorce opened at theEthel Barrymore Theatre.[5]
The song was so associated with Porter that when Hollywood filmed his life story in 1946, withCary Grant, the movie was entitledNight and Day.
A week before the musicalGay Divorce opened in November 1932, Astaire gathered withLeo Reisman and his orchestra atVictor's Gramercy Recording Studio in Manhattan to make a record of two Cole Porter compositions, "Night and Day" backed with "I've Got You on My Mind". All was done under the shadow cast by the1929 stock market crash, which had spawned theGreat Depression, a severe economic downturn that lasted through the 1930s. In just over two years, record industry revenues had fallen from $100 million to $6 million,[6] driving all but three companies (RCA Victor,American Record Corporation (ARC) andColumbia) out of business. The single was released as Victor 24193 on January 13, 1933, and it went on to become the top selling record of the year, with 22,811 copies sold.[1]
On May 23, 1933, Astaire recorded it again (due to anti-trust concerns) forColumbia Graphophone Company Ltd., which was now a part ofElectric and Musical Industries (EMI). It was released in the United Kingdom in October on Columbia DB 1215, backed with "After You, Who?", another Porter composition. Reisman, under contract to RCA Victor, was unable to accompany Astaire on this record. It can be distinguished from the US version because it is fifteen seconds shorter (3:10).
Another Fred Astaire version in circulation is from the soundtrack of the 1934 motion pictureThe Gay Divorcee, starring Fred Astaire andGinger Rogers. After the film opened on October 19, this version was released, and has appeared on record albums over the years. It is almost five minutes long, and Astaire sings and dances for the duration. Astaire is accompanied byMax Steiner and the RKO Radio Studio Orchestra.
The next release was recorded in December 1952 and released the following year in a four LP set calledThe Astaire Story, which provided an overview of songs Astaire had performed during his career. The musicians includedOscar Peterson and all the songs were fresh recordings. This version of "Night and Day" was over five minutes long.
There are several accounts about the song's origin. One mentions that Porter was inspired by an Islamic prayer when he visited Morocco.[4] Another account says he was inspired by the Moorish architecture of theAlcazar Hotel inCleveland Heights, Ohio.[7] Others mention that he was inspired by amosaic in theMausoleum of Galla Placidia, having visitedRavenna during his honeymoon trip toItaly.[8][9]
The construction of "Night and Day" is unusual for a hit song of the 1930s. Most popular tunes then featured32-bar choruses, divided into four 8-bar sections, usually with an AABA musical structure, the B section representing the bridge. However, Porter's song has a chorus of 48 bars, divided into six sections of eight bars—ABABCB—with section C representing the bridge.[citation needed]
"Night and Day" has unusualchord changes (the underlyingharmony).
The tune begins with apedal (repeated) dominant with amajor seventh chord built on the flattened sixth of the key, which then resolves to thedominant seventh in the next bar. If performed in the key of B♭, the first chord is therefore G♭ major seventh, with an F (the major seventh above the harmonic root) in the melody, before resolving to F7 and eventually B♭ maj7.
This section repeats and is followed by a descending harmonic sequence starting with a -7♭5 (half diminished seventh chord or Ø) built on the augmented fourth of the key, and descending by semitones—with changes in the chord quality—to thesupertonic minor seventh, which forms the beginning of a more standard II-V-I progression. In B♭, this sequence begins with an EØ, followed by an E♭-7, D-7 and D♭ dim, before resolving onto C-7 (the supertonic minor seventh) and cadencing onto B♭.
Thebridge is also unusual, with an immediate, fleeting and often (depending on the version) unpreparedkey change up a minor third, before an equally transient and unexpected return to the key centre. In B♭, the bridge begins with a D♭ major seventh, then moves back to B♭ with a B♭ major seventh chord. This repeats, and is followed by a recapitulation of the second section outlined above.
The vocal verse is also unusual in that most of the melody consists entirely of a single note repeated 35 times —the same dominant pedal that begins the body of the song—with rather inconclusive and unusual harmonies underneath.
Ginger Rogers andFred Astaire danced to "Night and Day" in the 1934 filmThe Gay Divorcee. It was their first romantic dance duet in film and their first dance together in leading roles.[10] Dance criticAlastair Macaulay wrote that this movie, and this dance number in particular, created one of thearchetypes of romance, and that cinema "has never had another couple who enshrined romantic love so definitively in terms of dance."[11] Film criticDavid Denby called "Night and Day" "Cole Porter's greatest song" and theAstaire–Rogers dance duet a vision of the sublime.[12] Music criticWill Friedwald said that by the end of the number, "she's not only in his arms, but the look she gives him ... is one of the defining moments of the entire series of Fred-and-Ginger film pairings."[13]
Billie Holiday recorded the song on more than one occasion. A single was recorded on December 13, 1939, in New York, with "The Man I Love" as a B-side, on theVocalion label, withWalter Page on bass,Joe Sullivan on piano,Jo Jones on drums,Earle Warren on alto sax,Lester Young on tenor sax,Jack Washington on baritone sax,Buck Clayton andHarry Edison on trumpet andFreddie Green on guitar.[14] In her autobiography,Lady Sings the Blues (1956), Holiday said "Night and Day" was "the toughest song in the world for me to sing."[15]
