Jerome Kern, music · Dorothy Fields, lyrics · Introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1936 film Swing Time
Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields wrote it for Fred Astaire to sing in the 1936 film Swing Time. Lead sheets in F write it as three sections, then a last with a four-bar tag. It won the 1936 Academy Award for best song, and Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra all recorded it.
Start with Astaire's original and Holiday's swing-era vocal, then follow the form through a tenor quintet with guitar, a live alto and piano quartet, live and studio , a tenor quartet and a modern piano trio. Each step plays the same long form a different way.
8 recordings, 1936 to 1985 · Play all 8 on YouTube ↗
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Fred Astaire · 1936
Brunswick single 7717
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Play the first four of the chart, , , , , one per bar, and hum the tune over them.
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Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra (Billie Holiday, vocal) · 1936
“The Way You Look Tonight (Take 2)”, Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday On Columbia
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Play 1 to 8, Fmaj7 Gm7 C7, and notice that bar 6 uses D7 where bar 2 uses Dm7.
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Stan Getz Quintet · 1952 · Bebop
Stan Getz Plays
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Play 9 to 12 of the chart, , , , then and sharing bar 12, in a slow loop.
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The Dave Brubeck Quartet · 1953 · Bebop, Cool jazz
“The Way You Look Tonight (Live at Oberlin College / 1953)”, Jazz at Oberlin
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Count along with the track against the chart: 16 of A, 16 bars of A, 16 bars of , then the last A. Mark each time the bridge begins on .
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Art Blakey Quintet · 1954
“The Way You Look Tonight (Live)”, Live Messengers
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Play the first four of the , , one per bar, right after the end of an , and note that the chords leave .
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Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk Quartet · 1954
Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins
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Play 13 to 16 of the , , , F6 Dm7, Gm7 C7, and notice that the same two-bar pattern repeats.
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Johnny Griffin · 1956
“The Way You Look Tonight (Remastered 2006 / Rudy Van Gelder Edition)”, The Other Side of Blue Note 1500 Series
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Play the two endings of the : in 16 the first time, then the second time, which leads to the .
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Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette · 1985 · Post-bop
Standards Live
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Play the A once, then play only the roots of the 's first four bars: A♭, F, B♭ and E♭.
3 more, from 1963 to 1964. Tap a cover to play it here.
1963 · Vocal
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Song Book
Ella Fitzgerald sang the song with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle on her 1963 Jerome Kern Song Book album, recorded January 5 to 7, 1963.
1963 · Hard bop
“The Way You Look Tonight (Take 2)”, Guitar on the Go
Wes Montgomery played the song with an organ trio in New York in 1963, with Mel Rhyne on organ and George Brown on drums. The linked track runs 5:53.
1964 · Big band, Swing
Nothing But the Best
Frank Sinatra recorded the song with the Nelson Riddle orchestra in 1964. The linked release is the 2008 compilation Nothing But the Best.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Each runs 16 in and opens , , , . The first A ends on Gm7 C7 and the second ends on , which leads into the . The 16-bar bridge sits in and opens , , B♭m7, E♭7. It returns to F major through A♭maj7, , Gm7 and C7. The last A is 16 bars and takes the chart's coda for a four-bar tag, Gm7, C7, Dm7, Gm7 C7, so the full form is 68 bars. The iReal Pro chart lists the bridge and tag as one 20-bar strain. Played out with its D.C. al Coda, the chart gives 16, 16, 16 and 20 bars.
Chart from iReal Pro's Jazz 1460 playlist, contributed by its users.