Night and Day (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Night and Day" is a song written by Cole Porter for the 1932 musical play Gay Divorce, and is one of the most widely recorded examples of a song from the Great American Songbook.
It was also featured in the 1934 film version, The Gay Divorcee. Fred Astaire introduced it in both the stage and film versions. The song subsequently became an American standard and has been performed and recorded by dozens of artists, notably Frank Sinatra.
Porter later claimed that the song was inspired by the Islamic call to worship he had heard on a trip to Morocco.
[edit] Notable recordings
The song has been recorded many times, notably by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.
Sinatra recorded the song five times; with Axel Stordahl in his first solo session in 1942 and again with him in 1947; with Nelson Riddle in 1956 for A Swingin’ Affair!, with Don Costa in 1961 for Sinatra and Strings (considered by many to be the best version), and even a disco version with Joe Beck in 1977.
Fitzgerald's most celebrated recording of the song occurred on her 1956 album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. The song was recorded in 1982 as a one-off collaboration between Tracey Thorn with student friend Ben Watt as Everything But The Girl; subsequently the duo became a well established pop act.
The song was recorded by U2 in 1990 and appeared on the Red Hot + Blue compilation album. Rod Stewart recorded a version for his 2004 album Stardust: the Great American Songbook 3. A rendition was recorded by The Temptations and the version is features in and on the soundtrack for the 2000 movie What Women Want.
In 2004, a version of "Night and Day" was included in the biographical film about Cole Porter, De-Lovely, sung by John Barrowman and Kevin Kline. The song was also recorded in 2005 by Sondre Lerche on his album Duper Sessions.
[edit] Harmonic structure
This song is well known for having unusual chord changes (the underlying harmony.)
The tune begins with a pedal (repeated) dominant with a major seventh chord built on the flattened sixth of the key, which then resolves to the dominant seventh in the next bar. If performed in the key of Bb, the first chord is therefore Gb major seventh, with an F (the major seventh above the harmonic root) in the melody, before resolving to F7 and eventually Bb maj7.
This section repeats and is followed by a descending harmonic sequence starting with a -7b5 (half diminshed or Ø) built on the augmented fourth of the key, and descending by semitones - with changes in the chord quality - to the supertonic minor seventh which forms the beginning of a more standard II-V-I progression. In Bb, this sequence begins with an EØ, followed by an EbØ, D-7 and Db dim, before resolving onto C-7 (the supertonic minor seventh) and cadencing onto Bb.
The bridge is also unusual, with an immediate, fleeting and often (depending on the version) unprepared key change up a minor third, before an equally transient and unexpected return to the key centre. In Bb, the bridge begins with a Db major seventh, then moves back to Bb with a Bb major seventh chord. This repeats, and is followed by a recapitulation of the second section outlined above.
The vocal verse is also unusual in that the melody consists entirely of a single note - the same dominant pedal that begins the body of the song - with rather inconclusive and unusual harmonies underneath.
[edit] External links
- Night and Day, in MP3 format, performed by The Black Coffee Jazz Quintet
- Night and Day performed on British TV by British singer Alma Cogan.
