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“The Way You Look Tonight” is a song from the film Swing Time, written by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern, and originally performed by Fred Astaire. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936. In 2004 the Astaire version finished at #43 in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
The song was sung to Ginger Rogers as Penelope “Penny” Carroll by Astaire in character as John “Lucky” Garnett, while Penny was busy washing her hair in an adjacent room. The song was written by Kern with lyrics by Fields, and has become a standard. Fields later 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.”
Astaire topped the charts with his recording in 1936 and other popular versions that year were by Guy Lombardo and by Teddy Wilson with a vocal by Billie Holiday.
The song was recorded on August 19, 1936, as a duet between Bing Crosby and his then wife, Dixie Lee.
Billie Holiday recorded this song in the same year as the film; her version can be found on several collections including her Columbia box set from 2001. It was also a big R&B hit for Los Angeles-based, multiracial group, The Jaguars in 1956.
The song also gave The Lettermen their first hit in 1961, hitting #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and #36 in the UK Singles Chart.
Kenny G – The Way You Look Tonight
The song itself is featured in films including Chinatown, Hannah and Her Sisters, Father of the Bride (1991), My Best Friend’s Wedding, First Daughter (2004) The Family Man, and the Kenneth Branagh films Peter’s Friends and Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000).
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