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The Way You Look Tonight

"The Way You Look Tonight"
The Way You Look Tonight.JPG
Single by The Lettermen
from the album A Song for Young Love
B-side "That's My Desire"
Released 1961
Format 7" single
Genre Pop standard
Length 2:21
Label Capitol
Writer(s)
The Lettermen singles chronology
"The Way You Look Tonight"
(1961)
"When I Fall in Love"
(1961)

"The Way You Look Tonight" is a song from the film Swing Time, 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 Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy 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."

The song was released in 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.

Additional early covers include recordings by Leslie Hutchinson, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Chad & Jeremy, The Coasters, Perry Como in 1961, James Darren, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee in 1941, Johnny Maestro and The Crests, Johnny Pace, Frank Sinatra in 1964, Arthur Tracy in 1937, Sal Viviano, and Andy Williams.


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