"The Way You Look Tonight" is a song featured in the film Swing Time, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936. It was written by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Dorothy 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." [1]
The song was sung by John "Lucky" Garnett (played by Fred Astaire) while sitting at the piano. Penelope "Penny" Carroll (played by Ginger Rogers) was busy washing her hair in an adjacent room, and feeling anything but beautiful at the time.
This song was also popularly performed by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Bublé, Joey McIntyre, Rod Stewart, Andy Williams, Ray Quinn, Steve Tyrell and as a duet between Bing Cro*****y and his wife Dixie Lee. Jazz pianist Art Tatum has an instrumental recording in the collection The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces. The song was also performed by The Lettermen and became a hit for them in 1961 (Billboard #13 pop, #3 easy listening). Billie Holiday also recorded this song, in 1936 (it can be found on "The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol.2"). It has also been covered by Chad & Jeremy, and by Bryan Ferry. The Lettermen's and Chad & Jeremy's versions were slowed-down, crooning versions, rather than the original dance tempo number as in the film the song was written for'. The Lettermen's version is, in fact, an MOR modification of a doo-wop/R&B version of the late 1950s version by the Jaguars.
Pianist Bradley Joseph performs his arrangement of "The Way You Look Tonight" on his 2006 album, Piano Love Songs. Saxophonist Johnny Griffin covered this song in the hard bop jazz style on his 1957 A Blowing Session recording. A cover performed by James Darren also forms the background music for the "Seven-year Montage" in the final episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "What You Leave Behind".
"The Way You Look Tonight" is referenced in Harold Pinter's play Old Times, in which two characters recite some of the lines. In the 1942 film Once Upon a Honeymoon, Cary Grant says to Ginger Rogers that he always wants to remember "you just the way you look tonight — er, today", referencing this song — as mentioned above, Rogers appeared in the film in which the song was first heard. The song itself is featured in such movies as Chinatown, My Best Friend's Wedding, Father of the Bride, Hannah and Her Sisters, Peter's Friends and Love's Labour's Lost. It is also sung by Allison Munn in the season finale of the WB show, What I Like About You'.
