They Can't Take That Away from Me
They Can't Take That Away from Me is a song that was written by George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) in 1937 and is one of "the absolute evergreens of the Great American Songbook ".
Using the song and first recording
The song, which has the song form A1-A2-B-A2, was first presented by Fred Astaire in the film musical Tanz mit mir (1937); he sings it in the film on the deck of the New Jersey to Manhattan ferry to Ginger Rogers , who listens to him and then stays behind. Astaire and Rogers dance from the song in their last film together, The Dancers from Broadway (1949), in which they play a married couple. Fred Astaire recorded They Can't Take That Away from Me on March 18, 1937 for Brunswick Records with the Johnny Green Orchestra. Astaire's recording was a huge hit and was number 1 on the US pop charts for ten weeks.
Cover versions of the song
In the same year the song was successful in 1937 by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (with band vocalist Jack Leonard, # 11 in the US charts), Ozzie Nelson (# 6), Billie Holiday / Teddy Wilson (# 12), the Count Basie Orchestra and Benny Goodman recorded; the song was later one of the greatest successes of the singer Frank Sinatra .
In the field of jazz , the song soon became a widely played jazz standard ; Tom Lord lists 536 cover versions of the title including Charlie Parker ( Charlie Parker with Strings 1949), Dizzy Gillespie , Sarah Vaughan ( Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown 1954); Erroll Garner ( Concert by the Sea 1955), Ella Fitzgerald in a duet with Louis Armstrong ( Ella and Louis 1956), Perry Como , Anita O'Day , Shirley Bassey and June Christy . Lester Young interpreted him on the clarinet in 1958; Oscar Peterson and other guest musicians accompanied Fred Astaire on a new recording for Mercury in 1952 . In later years he was also covered by Tony Bennett , Harry Connick Jr. , Diana Krall and Rupert Everett / Robbie Williams ( Swing When You're Winning ).
Oscar nomination and other uses in the film
George Gershwin died two months after the film premiered; the song was nominated in 1937 after Gershwin's death for the 1938 Academy Awards in the Best Song category.
The song found use in several other films in later years, including Kenneth Branagh's musical version of Shakespeare's Lost Love Labor (2000), Stephen Herek's Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) and Barry Levinson's Rain Man (1988).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Gerhard Klußmeier : Jazz in the Charts. Another view on jazz history. Liner notes and booklet for the 100 CD edition. Membrane International GmbH. ISBN 978-3-86735-062-4
- ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed January 2, 2014)
- ^ Oscar Peterson discography at jazzdisco.org