Night and Day (song)

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Night and Day is a 1932 song by Cole Porter from the musical Gay Divorce . The ballad , first performed on November 29, 1932, became a number one hit in the same year and became the jazz standard in the 1940s .

background

The title was initially sung by Fred Astaire , both in the Porter musical, which was moderately successful with 248 performances, and in the 1934 musical film The Gay Divorcee (German dance with me! ). The song begins very rhythmically with the words: "Like the beat, beat, beat of the tom tom " and does not hide the physical desire behind the declaration of love.

The core of the melody actually consists almost entirely of a tone repetition and a downward triplet ; the melody lives “from the small movements that circle chromatically around the root” but also from the frequent use of the fifth . Each stanza is 48 bars long and in an unusual song form - ABA'BCB '. The song can be interpreted as a beguine as well as a swing piece . Cole Porter later said that he was inspired to write the piece by the call of a muezzin he heard on a trip to Morocco .

First recordings

Astaire's recording of the song with Leo Reisman's orchestra became an almost instant hit and climbed to the top of the American charts within two weeks. Other recordings from the next few years also demonstrated the song's hit potential (also in instrumental versions):

  • Leo Reisman and His Orchestra (1932, Fred Astaire, # 1)
  • Eddy Duchin and His Central Park Casino Orchestra (1933, instrumental, # 2)
  • Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra (1934, Instrumental, # 13) (Reissue)
  • Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra (1940, instrumental, # 24)
  • Frank Sinatra (1942, with Axel Stordahl and His Orchestra, # 16)
  • Frank Sinatra (1944, # 15)
  • Bing Crosby (1946, # 21)

In Europe, the song was recorded by the Comedian Harmonists in 1933 .

The way to the jazz and pop standard

Sinatra gave the piece in 1942 with a sustaining voice and relaxed timbre "the decisive elegant touch" (he had had the song in the program since 1936 at the latest). In addition to recordings by Billie Holiday (1939) and Tommy Dorsey (1942), the formative swing versions also included those by Claude Thornhill (1942), Jack Teagarden (1943) and Edmond Hall (1944). Also Art Tatum coverte the song, first in 1946, then in the fifties with soloists like Roy Eldridge or Ben Webster . The song was also recorded by many musicians in modern jazz , e. B. by Charlie Parker (with big band, 1952), Stan Getz (from 1951 repeatedly) or Bill Evans (several times since 1958), later Keith Jarrett , Chick Corea , Marian McPartland / Willie Pickens ( Ain't Misbehavin ': Live at the Jazz Showcase 2000) or Adam Makowicz followed. Saxophonists played the title again and again - Sonny Rollins (1964) as well as Joe Henderson , Lee Konitz (1974) or Gary Thomas (1993). In addition to the instrumental versions, there were also new vocal versions, for example by Ella Fitzgerald ( Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook ) or by Anita O'Day . In the pop area, Sinatra repeatedly took on Night and Day , which was also played by groups such as U2 (1990, on Red Hot + Blue ), Joachim Witt and Rod Stewart . Even Yehudi Menuhin interpreted the song (in an arrangement by Stephane Grappelli ). The history of its impact as a pop song is reflected in the versions of the Willem Breuker Kollektief or by Franz Koglmann .

The piece was also used in the biographical film about Cole Porter De-Lovely - The Cole Porter Story (by Irwin Winkler ), sung by John Barrowman and Kevin Kline . is also the title of a musical revue film about Cole Porter from 1946. It was also used in television advertising (for a coffee blend of the same name).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Schaal, Jazz-Standards , pp. 355f.
  2. ^ So David Ewen in Great Men of American Popular Song (see also the song profile (jazzstandards.com) ); after Will Friedwald ( Stardust Melodies ), Porter also told another story about the inspiration for the melody.

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