Today in Music (1937): Fred Astaire hit #1 with “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”

They Can’t Take That Away from Me Fred Astaire with Johnny Greer’s Orchestra

Writer(s): George Gershwin (music), Ira Gershwin (lyrics) (see lyrics here) Recorded: March 14, 1937 First Charted: April 17, 1937 Peak: 11 PM, 6 GA, 6 HP (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1.8 video, 1.76 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska. From 1917 to 1931, he and his sister Adele were featured in ten major Broadway musicals. He established himself as “America’s greatest song and dance man” PM with “some thirty unforgettable musicals over the next four decades.” PM “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” was written by the famed Gerswhin brothers for the film Shall We Dance?, the seventh of ten film starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Sadly, George Gershwin died from a brain tumor just a few months later at age 38. Biographer Deena Rosenberg called it one of their “most haunting songs,” explaining that for the Gerswhins “each song is a personal and original expression of a universal feeling, mood or frame of mind." DR Author Don Tyler called the song “a ballad of affectionate reminiscene, full of small iagmes that evoke the intimate side of a relationship now obviously in the past.” TY2 The singer “requests permission to list a few of the things ‘that will keep me loving you.’ Among them are the way you wear your hat and sip your tea. He also loves your smile and ‘the way you sing off key.’ All these things and more that he loved about her can’t be taken away.” TY2 Astaire took the song to #1 in 1937. It was his sixth of eight trips to the pinnacle. Ozzie Nelson (#6), Tommy Dorsey (#11), and Billie Holiday (#12) also charted with the song that year. PM The song was nominated for an Academy Award. Astaire reprised it for the 1949 film The Barkleys of Broadway, another film starring him and Rogers. Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 194. DR Deena Rosenberg (1997). Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George & Ira Gershwin. University of Michigan Press. Pages 344-47. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 529. TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 231. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 37 and 594. Related Links: First posted 4/20/2025.