At Last
Encyclopedia
"At Last" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times, including six consecutive years between 1940 and 1945, and won the award once, for "You'll Never Know"...

 and Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...

 for the musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 Orchestra Wives
Orchestra Wives
Orchestra Wives is a 1942 American musical film by 20th Century Fox starring Ann Rutherford, George Montgomery, and Glenn Miller. The film was the second and last film to feature The Glenn Miller Orchestra, and is notable among the many swing era musicals because its plot is more serious and...

, starring George Montgomery and Ann Rutherford
Ann Rutherford
Ann Rutherford is a Canadian-American actress in film, radio, and television. She has had a long career starring and co-starring in films, playing Polly Benedict on the big screen of the 1930s and 1940s in the Andy Hardy series, and on The Bob Newhart Show as Newhart's character's...

. It was performed in the film and on record by Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...

 and his orchestra, with vocals by Ray Eberle
Ray Eberle
Raymond "Ray" Eberle was a vocalist during the Big Band Era. Eberle sang with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.-Career:...

 and Pat Friday
Pat Friday
Helen Patricia Freiday was an Idaho-born singer best remembered for her work with Glenn Miller. She also worked with Roy Rogers, although she did not care for that style of music. She was a "ghost singer" for Lynn Bari, but was never credited....

. Unreleased recordings of the song, however, had been made in 1941 by Glenn Miller for possible inclusion in the film Sun Valley Serenade
Sun Valley Serenade
Sun Valley Serenade is a 1941 musical film starring Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller, Milton Berle, and Lynn Bari. It features The Glenn Miller Orchestra as well as dancing by The Nicholas Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge, performing "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which was nominated for an Academy...

. A new version was recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 on May 20, 1942, and released by RCA Victor Records as a 78 single, catalogue number 27934-B, backed with the A side "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo
(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo
" Kalamazoo" is a #1 popular song recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in 1942. It was written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren and published in 1942. It was featured in the musical film Orchestra Wives and was recorded by Glenn Miller & His Orchestra, featuring Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton and...

". The song reached number 9 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

pop charts in 1942, staying on the charts for 9 weeks, and later became a standard. In 1960, it was covered by blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 singer Etta James
Etta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...

 in an arrangement that improvised on Warren's melody. James' version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...

 in 1999.

Original and cover versions

The song was a favorite of Warren's and he would occasionally draw the melody of the first two bars of the song when signing an autograph.

The song became James's signature song
Signature song
A signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best known for, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...

 and was the third in a string of successful songs from her Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....

 debut album At Last!. In April 1961, it became her second number 2 R&B hit and crossed over to pop radio, reaching number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. Despite its rather low pop chart standing, the song is well-known and is still played regularly on oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....

 radio stations.

In the decades since its release it has been covered by a number of artists. The Etta James version is perhaps the most famous, and is known to be performed at weddings
Wedding music
Wedding music applies music played at wedding celebrations, including the ceremony and any festivities before or after the event. The music can be performed live by musicians and/or vocalists or use pre-recorded songs, depending on the format of the event, traditions associated with the...

 and wedding receptions because of its romantic lyrics and sweeping orchestration.

On January 20, 2009, President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 and First Lady
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...

 Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...

 danced to various renditions of the song at each of the 10 official balls honoring his inauguration.

On August 13, 2009, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

 contestant Katie Stevens
Katie Stevens
Katherine Mari "Katie" Stevens is an American singer from Middlebury, Connecticut who finished in eighth place on the ninth season of American Idol.-Biography:...

 covered this song in her audition for American idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

.

Additional cover versions include:

  • Connie Haines
    Connie Haines
    Connie Haines was an American singer. Her 200 recordings were frequently up-tempo big band songs with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey orchestras, and Frank Sinatra...

     (1942)
  • Ray Anthony
    Ray Anthony
    Ray Anthony is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor.- Biography :...

     (1952)
  • Miles Davis
    Miles Davis
    Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

     (1953)
  • Chet Baker
    Chet Baker
    Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...

     (1953)
  • Nat King Cole
    Nat King Cole
    Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

     (1957)
  • The Four Freshmen
    The Four Freshmen
    The Four Freshmen is a multiple Grammy-nominated American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmony jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires , The Pied Pipers , and The Mel-Tones , founded in the barbershop tradition...

     (1960)
  • Baby Face Willette
    Baby Face Willette
    Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette was a hard bop and soul-jazz musician most known for playing Hammond organ. It is unclear whether he was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, or New Orleans, Louisiana...

     (1961)
  • Ben E. King
    Ben E. King
    Benjamin Earl King , better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a U.S...

     (1962)
  • Shirley Scott
    Shirley Scott
    Shirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...

     (1962)
  • Brenda Lee
    Brenda Lee
    Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...

     (1963)
  • Judy Garland
    Judy Garland
    Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

     (1964)
  • Mary Wells
    Mary Wells
    Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...

     (May 1964)
  • The Glenn Miller Orchestra starring Ray McKinley
    Ray McKinley
    Ray McKinley was an American jazz drummer, singer, and bandleader.McKinley got his start working with local bands in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, before joining Smith Ballew in 1929, when he met Glenn Miller. The two formed a friendship which lasted from 1929 until Miller's death in 1944....

     and Bobby Hackett
    Bobby Hackett
    Robert Leo "Bobby" Hackett was an US jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet and guitar with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late thirties and early forties.-Biography:...

     (1965)
  • Doris Day
    Doris Day
    Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...

     (1965)
  • Baby Washington (1968)
  • Stevie Wonder
    Stevie Wonder
    Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

     with James Jamerson
    James Jamerson
    James Lee Jamerson was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of Motown Records' hits in the 1960s and early 1970s , and he is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history...

     on bass (1969)
  • Laura Lee
    Laura Lee
    Laura Lee is an American soul and gospel singer and songwriter, most successful in the 1960s and 1970s and influential for her records which discussed and celebrated women’s experience.-Career:...

     (June 1972)
  • Randy Crawford
    Randy Crawford
    Randy Crawford is an American jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist...

     (1977)
  • The Fatback Band (1978)
  • Ella Fitzgerald
    Ella Fitzgerald
    Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

     (1983)
  • Mariah Carey
    Mariah Carey
    Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...

     (1988)
  • Phoebe Snow
    Phoebe Snow
    Phoebe Snow was a fictional character created by Earnest Elmo Calkins to promote the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. The advertising campaign, based on a live model, using impressionistic techniques and a fictional character, was one of the first of its kind.-The advertising...

     (1991)
  • Diane Schuur
    Diane Schuur
    Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...

     and B.B. King (1994)

  • Stevie Nicks
    Stevie Nicks
    Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...

     (1999)
  • Joni Mitchell
    Joni Mitchell
    Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

    (2000)
  • Eva Cassidy
    Eva Cassidy
    Eva Marie Cassidy was an American vocalist known for her interpretations of jazz, blues, folk, gospel, country and pop classics. In 1992 she released her first album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown, followed by a live solo album, Live at Blues Alley in 1996...

     (2000)
  • Christina Aguilera
    Christina Aguilera
    Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...

     (2000/-01) (Also sung in 2003)
  • Céline Dion
    Celine Dion
    Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

     (2002)
  • Mary Coughlan
    Mary Coughlan (singer)
    Mary Coughlan is an Irish jazz and folk singer and actress. She has received great acclamation in her native country, for her emotional and heartfelt jazzy musical renditions.-Background:...

     (2002)
  • Julia DeMato
    Julia DeMato
    Julia Megan DeMato is an American professional cosmetologist and singer who made it to tenth place on the second season on the television show American Idol.-Early life:...

     (2003)
  • Cyndi Lauper
    Cyndi Lauper
    Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...

     (2003)
  • Christina Aguilera
    Christina Aguilera
    Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...

     (2003) (Also in 2000/-01)
  • Michael Bolton
    Michael Bolton
    Michael Bolton is an American singer and songwriter. Bolton originally performed in the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, both on his early solo albums and those recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack...

     (2004)
  • Kenny G. featuring Arturo Sandoval
    Arturo Sandoval
    Arturo Sandoval is a jazz trumpeter and pianist. He was born in Artemisa, in the newest renamed Artemisa Province, Cuba....

     (2005)
  • Michael Feinstein
    Michael Feinstein
    Michael Jay Feinstein is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs...

     and George Shearing
    George Shearing
    Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...

     (2005)
  • Aubrey O'Day
    Aubrey O'Day
    Aubrey Morgan O'Day is an American singer, actress, fashion designer, television personality, and former member of the girl group Danity Kane...

     (2005) (Live cover)
  • Raul Malo
    Raul Malo
    Raúl Francisco Martínez-Malo Jr. , known professionally as Raúl Malo, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He was the lead singer of country music band The Mavericks and the co-writer of many of their singles, as well as Rick Trevino's 2003 single "In My Dreams"...

     (2006)
  • Aretha Franklin
    Aretha Franklin
    Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

     (2007)
  • Wynonna Judd
    Wynonna Judd
    Wynonna Ellen Judd is an American country music singer. Her solo albums and singles are all credited to the singular name Wynonna. Wynonna first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in the country music duo The Judds...

     (2007; only in concert)
  • Beyoncé
    Beyoncé Knowles
    Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...

     (2008)
  • Liza Minnelli
    Liza Minnelli
    Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....

     (2010)
  • Brandy
    Brandy Norwood
    Brandy Rayana Norwood , known professionally as Brandy, is an American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and dancer. In 2009, she introduced her rap alter-ego Bran'Nu....

     (2010)
  • Paloma Faith
    Paloma Faith
    Paloma Faith is a British singer-songwriter and actress. In 2009, she released her debut single "Stone Cold Sober", then her debut album, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?, which was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. Her debut album stayed within the top 40 album...

     (2010)
  • Jason Mraz
    Jason Mraz
    Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...



Cultural references

In the final scene of the May 10, 2004 series finale of the UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...

 sitcom The Parkers
The Parkers
The Parkers is an American sitcom . A spin-off of UPN's Moesha, The Parkers featured the mother-daughter team of Nikki and Kim Parker . The Parkers' signature "Heeyyy" greeting made its way into popular vernacular in the early 2000s.-Premise:The series centered around a mother and daughter who...

, Kim Parker (Countess Vaughn
Countess Vaughn
Countess Danielle Vaughn is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her role as Kim Parker on the UPN television sitcom Moesha and its spin-off The Parkers.-Early life and career:...

) sings the song following the wedding of her mother Nikki Parker (Mo'Nique) and the longtime object of Nikki's affection, Professor Stanley Oglevee (Dorien Wilson
Dorien Wilson
Dorien Wilson is an American television actor.-Career:Wilson has most notably played the parts of Professor Stanley Oglevee on the UPN sitcom The Parkers and of talk-show host Eddie Charles on HBO's series Dream On. He had a recurring role as Terrence on Sister, Sister...

). Appropriately, the episode is entitled "At Last."

A brief clip of the song (Etta James) is heard on Strong Arms of the Ma
Strong Arms of the Ma
"Strong Arms of the Ma" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons fourteenth season which aired on February 2, 2003. It is the 300th episode to be broadcast.-Plot:...

of the TV series, The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

, when Marge rips the jukebox out of the wall at Moe's Tavern.

The Etta James version is in the 1998 film Pleasantville
Pleasantville (film)
Pleasantville is a 1998 American fantasy comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Marley Shelton and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Jane Kaczmarek, and J. T. Walsh are also featured.The film...

, appearing in the score behind the decisive scene when the pink 1950s-era Buick
Buick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...

 convertible carries the newly enlightened kids down to the park by the lake in a gentle shower of pink blossoms. It was also used in American Pie
American Pie (film)
American Pie is a 1999 teen comedy film written by Adam Herz. American Pie was the directorial film debut of brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, and the first film in the American Pie film series...

in one of the early scenes of the film where lovestruck Jim approaches foreign exchange student Nadia at a party.

The song was used in FOX's post-game coverage of Game 4 of the 2004 World Series
2004 World Series
The 2004 World Series was the Major League Baseball championship series for the 2004 season. It was the 100th World Series and featured the American League champions, the Boston Red Sox, against the National League champions, the St. Louis Cardinals...

 when the Boston Red Sox
2004 Boston Red Sox season
The Boston Red Sox 2004 season was the 103rd Major League Baseball season for the Boston Red Sox franchise. Managed under Terry Francona, the team finished with a 98–64 record...

 ended an 86-year championship drought.

Ventriloquist Terry Fator
Terry Fator
Terry Wayne Fator is a ventriloquist, impressionist, comedian, and singer from Dallas, Texas. Fator is capable of doing over 100 ventriloquial impersonations, and uses 16 different puppets in his act. He was the winner of Season 2 of America's Got Talent, and received the million dollar prize...

 won the summer 2007 season
America's Got Talent (Season 2)
The second season of America's Got Talent, an American television reality show talent competition, premiered on the NBC network on June 5, 2007 with a two-hour episode. Tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer succeeded Regis Philbin as host. Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff returned as judges,...

 of America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent is an American reality television series on the NBC television network, and part of the global British Got Talent franchise. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of...

largely on the strength of his performance of the song with his puppet "Emma Taylor".

At the many inaugural balls for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 on January 20, 2009, the featured number for the President's and First Lady's first dance was "At Last", performed live by Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...

.

The Etta James
Etta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...

 version of the song was featured in an almost silent episode of Two Guys and a Girl
Two Guys and a Girl
Two Guys and a Girl is an American sitcom created by Kenny Schwartz and Danny Jacobson. It ran on ABC from March 10, 1998 to May 16, 2001. 81 episodes were transmitted over four seasons....

.

Kevin Michael
Kevin Michael
Kevin Michael is an American pop artist that was signed to Downtown Records in 2007, the same year he released his self-titled album.-Early life:...

 performed a cover of the song during the wedding scene in the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer.

In the 2009 series of The X Factor
The X Factor (UK)
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, it began in September 2004 and is contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. It is the originator of the international X Factor franchise. The seven series of the show to date...

, Stacey Solomon
Stacey Solomon
Stacey Solomon is a British singer, television presenter, model and reality TV star. She rose to fame during her time on the sixth series of The X Factor, coming third overall on the show...

 performed this song on Diva Week. The performance received mixed reviews from judges, Dannii Minogue
Dannii Minogue
Danielle Jane "Dannii" Minogue is an Australian singer-songwriter, actress, television personality, radio personality, fashion designer and model...

 and Cheryl Cole
Cheryl Cole
Cheryl Ann Cole is an English pop and R&B recording artist, songwriter, dancer, actress and model. She rose to fame in late 2002 when she auditioned for the reality television show Popstars: The Rivals on ITV. The programme announced that Cole had won a place as a member of the girl group, Girls...

 both enjoyed it but Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...

 said she was out of her comfort zone.

In 2010, Alice Tan Ridley
Alice Tan Ridley
Alice Tan Ridley is a gospel and R&B singer and the mother of Gabourey Sidibe. She auditioned on the NBC series America's Got Talent. Prior to joining America's Got Talent, Alice also appeared in the television show 30 Seconds To Fame, winning $25,000 in the pilot episode.-Early life:Alice raised...

 performed this song for her audition on America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent is an American reality television series on the NBC television network, and part of the global British Got Talent franchise. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of...

. The judges praised her for her performance and she moved on to the next round.

Likewise, for his 2011 UK X Factor auditon version, former drag queen Johnny Robinson amazed the judges and received a standing ovation from the audience.

It was used in the trailer for the 2008 film Wall-E
WALL-E
WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future...

(Etta James Version).

Charts

Chart (1961) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 47
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Sides 1
UK (in 2010) 69

Céline Dion version

"At Last" was covered by Céline Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

 and included on her 2002 album A New Day Has Come
A New Day Has Come
A New Day Has Come is Celine Dion's 18th studio album which marked her return after two-year hiatus to have a child. It was released on March 22, 2002. A New Day Has Come is Dion's 9th English album and 29th in total...

. Her version was produced by Humberto Gatica
Humberto Gatica
Humberto Gatica is a Chilean-born American record producer, music mixer, audio engineer anda long-time collaborator with producer David Foster....

 and Guy Roche
Guy Roche
Guy Roche is a record producer and songwriter who is best known for the hit singles he has co-written/co-produced for Christina Aguilera, which include but are not limited to "What a Girl Wants", "I Turn to You", and "Come on Over Baby . He also co-wrote Brandy's Never Say Never single "Almost...

, and released as a promotional single in the United States on December 9, 2002. However, there was no music video made for the song. It was also the last single released from the A New Day Has Come album.

"At Last" peaked at number 16 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...

.

A live version of this song was included on the A New Day... Live in Las Vegas
A New Day... Live in Las Vegas
A New Day... Live in Las Vegas is Céline Dion's first English live album, released on June 14, 2004. It's her 11th English longplay and 32nd in total.-Album information:A New Day.....

album in 2004, as Dion performed it for four years during her A New Day...
A New Day...
A New Day... was a Las Vegas residency show performed by Céline Dion at the 4000-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It was created and directed by Franco Dragone and premiered on March 25, 2003...

show in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

.

Charts

Chart (2002) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 16

Beyoncé Knowles version

"At Last" was also covered by Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...

 and included on the soundtrack album
Cadillac Records: Music From the Motion Picture
Cadillac Records: Music From the Motion Picture is the Grammy-nominated soundtrack album to the Golden Globe nominated film Cadillac Records...

 of the film, Cadillac Records
Cadillac Records
Cadillac Records is a 2008 musical biopic written and directed by Darnell Martin. The film explores the musical era from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, chronicling the life of the influential Chicago-based record-company executive Leonard Chess, and the musicians who recorded for Chess...

. It was released as the lead single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...

 from the soundtrack album on December 2, 2008 through Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. In the film, Knowles portrays Etta James. Beyoncé won critical acclaim for portraying James in "Cadillac Records," and has performed "At Last" several times since the movie was released, including in front of James. She told MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...

: "[Etta James is] one of my heroes, and I always loved her voice, but now knowing what she's been through, she's one of my heroes. I'm not sure if she thought [I would be good] as her. I'm very, very nervous. [...] I actually spoke with her and she told me, 'I loved you from the first time you sung.'" Knowles later told Billboard Magazine: "I realized that Etta James was so unapologetic, bold and strong that playing her was a big risk for me. It gave me the confidence and the push to challenge myself a little more with my music."

Critical reception

John Kehe of The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...

wrote: "No one can channel Etta – she's a singular talent – but Beyoncé does it her own way and conjurs enough emotion and grit to make it work in the context of the movie." A. O. Scott of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

added that Knowles' interpretation of "At Last" was "downright revelatory" and described Knowles as "a real soul diva of the old school." By contrast, Thom Jurek of Allmusic wrote that on "At Last", "Knowles possesses little of the legendary singer's power or edgy finesse. She's entirely too polished and restrained. Her phrasing doesn't come close in terms of inventiveness or inspiration, and her emotional conviction is lacking, to say the least."

This was somehow echoed by Robert Fontenot of About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....

 who thought that Knowles "sings Etta like a diva -- technically proficient, but overemoted and lacking every bit of Etta's sly subtext and hard-won earthiness. Beyoncé knows how to sing the blues, in other words; she just doesn't know how to have them." Knowles' version of "At Last" won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally named the Gramophone Awards, to performers of quality traditional R&B vocal performances. The award was first given in 1999; until 2003, only...

 at the 52nd Grammy Awards
52nd Grammy Awards
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year on January 29, two days prior to the Grammy telecast. Only ten of the 109 awards were received during the broadcast...

.

Live performance

Knowles performed the song live at Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

's first dance with his wife Michelle
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...

 during the Neighborhood Ball on the night of his inauguration as President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

. She told Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...

: "To sing 'At Last' while they have their first dance is a dream come true. I could not be more honored and excited that they have asked me to be part of this moment in history." Etta James, who was not happy at all, remarked to the audience at a concert a week later: "You guys know your president, right? You know the one with the big ears?" James asked from the stage of Seattle's Paramount Theatre. "Wait a minute, he ain't my president. He might be yours; he ain't my president. But I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song — she's going to get her ass whupped."

A week later, she continued savaging Knowles' performance by adding: "The great Beyoncé. Like I said, she ain't mine. [...] I can't stand Beyoncé. She has no business up there, singing up there on a big ol' president day, gonna be singing my song that I've been singing forever." However, she later told the New York Daily News she meant no harm when poked fun at the President and she ripped Knowles for her performance of "At Last" during the inauguration. She said: "I didn't really mean anything. Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude. [...] That's probably what went into it." Still, James acknowledged being miffed she was not invited to perform her signature song for Obama's first dance with his wife on inauguration night. The event was telecast live on multiple broadcast and cable television networks. At each of the balls, the Obamas' dance song remained "At Last". Knowles also performed "At Last" live at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival 2011
The 2011 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts was held from 22–26 June 2011. Tickets for the festival went on sale from 9 am on Sunday 3 October 2010, over 37 weeks before the festival was set to begin, with a deposit of £50 being paid, while the whole cost of a ticket is £195...

on June 26, 2011.

Charts

Chart (2008) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 67
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 79
U.S. Billboard Jazz Songs 9
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