Let's Face the Music and Dance
Encyclopedia
"Let's Face the Music and Dance" is a song written in 1936 by Irving Berlin
for the film Follow the Fleet
, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire
and featured in a celebrated dance duet with Astaire and Ginger Rogers
. It is also used in Pennies from Heaven (1981 film)
, where Astaire's voice is lip-synched by Steve Martin
, and in a celebrated Morecambe and Wise
sketch involving newsreader Angela Rippon
.
Barbra Streisand
performed a line in her "Color Me Barbra Medley" from the TV special and album "Color Me Barbra
".
In "New Killer Star
", song from David Bowie
2003 album Reality, there's a reference of the title before the chorus.
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
for the film Follow the Fleet
Follow the Fleet
Follow the Fleet is a 1936 Hollywood musical comedy film with a nautical theme and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Lucille Ball and Betty Grable also appear, in small supporting roles...
, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
and featured in a celebrated dance duet with Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
. It is also used in Pennies from Heaven (1981 film)
Pennies from Heaven (1981 film)
Pennies from Heaven is a 1981 musical film. The film was based on a 1978 BBC television drama. In 1981, Dennis Potter adapted his own screenplay for a film of the same name for American audiences, with its setting changed to Depression era Chicago. Potter was nominated for the 1981 Academy Award...
, where Astaire's voice is lip-synched by Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
, and in a celebrated Morecambe and Wise
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, usually referred to as Morecambe and Wise, or Eric and Ernie, were a British comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984...
sketch involving newsreader Angela Rippon
Angela Rippon
Angela M. Rippon, OBE, born 12 October 1944, Plymouth, Devon, England, is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. Rippon presented radio and television news programmes in South West England before moving to BBC One's Nine O'Clock News, becoming a regular presenter in 1975...
.
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
performed a line in her "Color Me Barbra Medley" from the TV special and album "Color Me Barbra
Color Me Barbra
Color Me Barbra is the title of the seventh studio album by singer Barbra Streisand released on Columbia Records in 1966. It reached #3 in the US albums charts and was certified GOLD by the RIAA...
".
In "New Killer Star
New Killer Star
"New Killer Star" is a song written and performed by David Bowie in 2003 for his album Reality. This was the first single from the album and released on DVD only, except in Italy and Canada...
", song from David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
2003 album Reality, there's a reference of the title before the chorus.
Notable recordings
- Bea Arthur - Bea Arthur On Broadway: Just Between Friends (2002)
- Tony BennettTony BennettTony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
- The Beat of My HeartThe Beat of My HeartThe Beat Of My Heart is a 1957 album by Tony Bennett.-1957 LP listing:Side one#"Let's Begin" - 2:00#"Lullaby of Broadway" - 2:24#"Let There Be Love" - 2:03...
(1957), Bennett/BerlinBennett/BerlinBennett/Berlin is an album by Tony Bennett, released in 1987, recorded as a tribute to Irving Berlin.-Track listing:#"They Say It's Wonderful" - 2:02#"Isn't This a Lovely Day?" - 3:19#"All of My Life" - 4:37#"Now it Can Be Told" - 2:24...
(1987) - Nat King ColeNat King ColeNathaniel 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...
- Let's Face The Music (1963) - Doris DayDoris DayDoris 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,...
- Hooray For HollywoodHooray for Hollywood (album)Hooray for Hollywood was the name of a two-album set recorded by Doris Day, released by Columbia Records. The two-album set was released by Columbia under the catalog number AC2L-5, but each individual LP was also released in both monaural and stereophonic versions as indicated below.-Volume...
(1959) - Natalie ColeNatalie ColeNatalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
- Stardust (1996) - Barbara CookBarbara CookBarbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
- Mostly Sondheim (2002) - in a medley with "The Song is YouThe Song Is YouThe Song Is You is a 1994 box set by the American singer Frank Sinatra.This five disc box set contains every studio recording Frank Sinatra performed with Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra, a few tracks of alternate recording takes, and a full disc of mostly-unreleased radio broadcasts...
" (Jerome KernJerome KernJerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
/Oscar Hammerstein, II) - Ella FitzgeraldElla FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin SongbookElla Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin SongbookElla Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook is a 1958 album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with a studio orchestra conducted and arranged by Paul Weston, focusing on the songs of Irving Berlin.-Grammy Awards:...
(1958) - Diana KrallDiana KrallDiana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
- When I Look in Your EyesWhen I Look in Your EyesWhen I Look in Your Eyes is the fifth album by Canadian jazz pianist and vocalist Diana Krall, released in 1999 . It was nominated for Album of the Year, the first time in 25 years that a jazz album was nominated for the most coveted prize of the night, and won two awards for Best Jazz Vocal and...
(1999) - Susannah McCorkleSusannah McCorkleSusannah McCorkle was an American jazz singer much admired for her direct, unadorned singing style and quiet intensity.-Biography:...
- Ballad Essentials (2008) - Anita O'DayAnita O'DayAnita O'Day was an American jazz singer.Born Anita Belle Colton, O'Day was admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer"...
- Pick Yourself UpPick Yourself Up"Pick Yourself Up" is a popular song composed in 1936 by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It has a verse and chorus, as well as a third section, though the third section is often omitted in recordings...
(1956) - Taco OckerseTaco OckerseTaco Ockerse , better known by his stage name Taco, is an Indonesian-born Dutch singer and entertainer who started his career in Germany.-Early life:...
- Let's Face The Music (1984) - Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
- Ring-A-Ding-DingRing-A-Ding-DingRing-a-Ding-Ding! is a 1961 album by Frank Sinatra. It was Sinatra's first for Reprise, and, as the initial concept was "an album without ballads", included only uptempo swing numbers....
(1961), Trilogy: Past Present FutureTrilogy: Past Present FutureTrilogy: Past Present Future is a 1980 triple album by the American singer Frank Sinatra. This album produced the last of Sinatra's many signature numbers, "Theme from New York, New York."...
(1981) - Caetano VelosoCaetano VelosoCaetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
- Omaggio a Federico e Giulietta (1999)