Friday, July 13, 2007

Night and day


You learn something new every day (especially if you're me). This afternoon while folding my Friday laundry, I watched The Gay Divorcee with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and found out that one of my favorite songs, the old standard "Night and Day" by Cole Porter, was written for this particular film. The movie itself is an appealing light musical comedy with plenty of the duo's famous dancing (my favorite part).

In The Gay Divorcee, Astaire sings "Night and Day". Many others have covered it since the film came out in 1934, but my favorite version is by the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald. Every time I hear it, I envision myself in a flowing gown, being swept away à la Ginger and Fred, dancing on my own personal cloud.

I have an mp3 of Ella Fitzgerald singing "Night and Day"; however, Blogger doesn't support sharing mp3 files. So I googled like crazy to try and find a link to a recording of it, but no dice. Then I remembered Youtube.com and got lucky. This isn't quite as smooth as the track I have on mp3, but it's still a wonderful live performance by a consummate artist of a beautiful love song.

Oh, and by the way—Youtube.com also has a trailer for The Gay Divorcee, which has a short clip of Astaire singing "Night and Day". That particular scene is charming; it's where he finally wins her over with the song and a romantic waltz. If you've never seen it, this classic film is worth watching.

1 comment:

lemon square said...

i love fred. movie stars just don't compare these days