Friday, December 24, 1982

50 years ago: Fred Astaire hit #1 with Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” for first of 10 weeks

Night and Day

Fred Astaire with Leo Reisman’s Orchestra

Writer(s): Cole Porter (see lyrics here)

First Charted: December 17, 1932

Peak: 1¹⁰ US, 1¹ GA, 2 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.36 video, -- streaming

Awards (Fred Astaire):

Click on award for more details.

Awards (Ella Fitzgerald):

Awards (U2):

About the Song:

When it comes to standards, “Night and Day” stands second only to “Star Dust”. ^MM Cole Porter, whose name is “almost a generic term for witty show songs,” ^LW wrote what has been called “one of the greatest love ballads ever written” ^NPR for the Broadway musical Gay Divorce. The song builds the melody by repeating the first note 32 times, followed by another 16 notes repeated at a half tone higher, followed by a return to the original note for another 16 beats. ^LW Porter has claimed the song was inspired by Moroccan Muslim calls to prayer; ^TY supposedly while visiting North Africa, he heard a priest wailing to his followers from the local mosque. ^LW

Fred Astaire and Claire Luce sang it in the show and then for the 1934 film version Astaire reprised the number, singing and dancing with Ginger Rogers. ^JA Astaire’s recording of the song with Leo Reisman’s Orchestra was the first and most successful of seven charting versions between 1932 and 1946. ^PM It was the biggest hit of 1932. ^WHC

Astaire was a popular choice for Tin Pan Alley songs, not just because he could deliver the box office goods, but because he sang songs as they were written. ^LW The song has also “held a strong position across the board in jazz” ^MM with wildly versatile versions by Benny Goodman (big band), Dave Brubeck (piano), Stan Getz (saxophone), and Django Reinhardt (guitar). ^MM Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, and Sammy Davis, Jr. have also recorded vocal versions. ^MM One of the most interesting covers, though, was the version U2 did for the Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue. Nearly sixty years after the song first charted, this Irish rock band took the Tin Pan Alley classic to #2 on the modern rock tracks chart and #34 on the album rock tracks chart.

Resources:

^JA David A. Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 145.
^LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 68.
^MM Max Morath (2002). The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Popular Standards. New York, NY; Penguin Putnam Inc. Page 178.
^NPR National Public Radio web site (1999). “The Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century”
^TY Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. New York, NY: Quill. Page 65.
^PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Page 558.
^WHC Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Page 49.