The Way You Look Tonight (Song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the song. For the album by Jimmy McGriff, see The Way You Look Tonight (album). For the Elton John song, see Something About the Way You Look Tonight.

“The Way You Look To-night” is a song from the film Swing Time that was performed by Fred Astaire and composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics written by Dorothy Fields. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936. Fields remarked, “The first time Jerry played that melody for me I went out and started to cry. The release absolutely killed me. I couldn’t stop, it was so beautiful.”

In the movie, Astaire sang “The Way You Look To-night” to Ginger Rogers while she was washing her hair in an adjacent room. Astaire’s recording was a top seller in 1936.

Other versions that year were by Guy Lombardo

and Teddy Wilson with Billie Holiday.

Composition and publication

The song was sung by Fred Astaire in the 1936 film Swing Time in the key of D major, but it is typically performed in E-flat major with a modulation to G-flat major.

It was first copyrighted on March 17, 1936, as “Way (The) you look to-night; song from I won’t dance”, and was unpublished (“I Won’t Dance” was a song from the 1935 film Roberta by Kern and Fields). The next copyright on July 24, 1936, was from Swing Time and was published. Both were renewed in 1963.

Contemporary recordings

Fred Astaire recorded “The Way You Look To-night” in Los Angeles on July 26, 1936. Bing Crosby and his wife Dixie Lee recorded the song as a duet on August 19.

To take advantage of the song’s success, pianist Teddy Wilson brought Billie Holiday into a studio 10 weeks after the film Swing Time was released. Holiday was 21 when she recorded “The Way You Look Tonight” with a small group led by Wilson in October 1936.

A number of British dance bands also made contemporary cover recordings of the song: Ambrose (with vocals by Sam Browne),

Roy Fox (with vocals by Denny Dennis),

Tommy Kinsman, Harry Roy,

Carroll Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans (vocal by George Melachrino)

and Jay Wilbur (with vocals by Sam Costa).

Cover versions

• Six years passed before the song appeared on the charts again, this time in a version by Benny Goodman with Peggy Lee on vocals and Mel Powell on celeste.

• The most popular and imitated version was recorded by Frank Sinatra with the Nelson Riddle orchestra in 1964.

Certifications

Frank Sinatra

• The Lettermen found their first hit when their version reached No. 13 on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 singles chart in 1961, No. 14 in Canada, and No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart that same year.

Charts

The Lettermen

• Ella Fitzgerald recorded the song on Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Jerome Kern Songbook.

• Tony Bennett recorded the song on his album Long Ago and Far Away in 1958,

• and then again with the Ralph Sharon Trio for the film My Best Friend’s Wedding, released in 1997.
• The singer also recorded two duets of the song: with Faith Hill in 2011 on Duets II

• and one year later on his album Viva Duets with Thalía.

• A new version only accompanied by the piano of Bill Charlap was on the album The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern in 2015.

• Rod Stewart included the song in his 2002 covers album It Had to Be You.

• Phil Collins included a live version of the song on his 2004 complimation album Love Songs: A Compilation… Old and New.

• Michael Bublé

• The Lucky Duckies

• Kenny G

• Adam Levine

• Olivia Newton John

The Way You Look Tonight May Refer To :

• Steve Tyrel version featured in the film “Father Of The Bride”

The Way You Look Tonight (Album)

The Way You Look Tonight (also released as I Want to Talk About You) is an album by American jazz organist Jimmy McGriff recorded in 1969 and released on the Solid State label the following year.

Track listing

1. “The Way You Look Tonight” (Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields) – 5:27
2. “Moon River” (Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer) – 4:33
3. “I Want to Talk About You” (Billy Eckstine) – 5:51
4. “Once Again” (Jimmy McGriff) – 5:17
5. “Laura” (David Raksin) – 5:33
6. “All Soul” (C. Lewis) – 3:41

Personnel

• Jimmy McGriff − organ
• Unidentified musicians − guitar, drums

The song “The Way You Look Tonight” is featured in the 1997 romantic comedy “My Best Friend’s Wedding”

My Best Friend’s Wedding (Film)

My Best Friend’s Wedding is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by P. J. Hogan from a screenplay by Ronald Bass who also produced. The film stars Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, and Rupert Everett. Roberts plays a woman who discovers that her longtime friend is engaged to a much younger woman. She realizes she loves him herself and sets out to prevent the two from getting married, with only days before the wedding.

My Best Friend’s Wedding received positive reviews from critics upon release and emerged as a global box-office hit. The soundtrack song “I Say a Little Prayer” was covered by singer Diana King and featured heavily in the film, making it a U.S. Billboard Hot 100 hit. The soundtrack featured a number of Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs.

My Best Friend’s Wedding was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (James Newton Howard), in addition to 3 Golden Globe Award nominations – Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress – Musical or Comedy (Roberts) and Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture (Everett). Post-release, it has often been cited as one of the best romantic comedy films of the 1990s and of all time.

• My Best Friend’s Wedding [1997] – Official Trailer (HD)

Plot

Three weeks before her 28th birthday, New York City food critic Julianne “Jules” Potter receives a call from her lifelong friend Michael O’Neal, a Chicago sportswriter. Years earlier, the two agreed that if they were both unmarried by age 28, they would marry each other. Michael tells her that in four days, he will marry the beautiful Kimmy Wallace, a college student eight years his junior whose father owns the Chicago White Sox.

Realizing she is in love with him, Jules resolves to sabotage his wedding. Arriving in Chicago, she reunites with Michael and meets Kimmy, who asks her to be the maid of honor. Jules schemes to break up the couple, but her attempt to humiliate Kimmy at a karaoke bar backfires. She manipulates Kimmy into asking her father to offer Michael a job, which Jules knows will anger Michael, but this fails as well.

Frustrated, Jules begs her friend George Downes for help, and he flies to Chicago. On George’s advice, Jules prepares to tell Michael how much she loves him but instead tells him that she is engaged to George, hoping to make Michael jealous. George, who is gay, plays along but embarrasses Jules at lunch with the wedding party, singing “I Say a Little Prayer” as the whole restaurant joins in.

George flies home, and Jules tells Michael that her “relationship” with George is over. Michael admits to feeling jealous and gives her the chance to confess her feelings, but she lets the moment pass. They share a dance as Michael sings their song, “The Way You Look Tonight“.

The day before the wedding, at Kimmy’s father’s office, Jules uses his email account to forge a message from him to Michael’s boss, asking that Michael be fired to allow Kimmy’s father to hire him at Kimmy’s insistence. She saves the message rather than send it. Jules lies to enlist Michael’s help saying she used Walter’s office for her job, but they find the office locked. Returning to Jules’ hotel, Michael receives a message from his boss notifying him of the email because Walter’s secretary sent it because Walter told her he had emails on his computer he wrote over lunch and to send them out. Furious, he calls Kimmy, calling off the wedding.

The next morning, Jules discovers that neither Michael nor Kimmy have told anyone else that the wedding is off. She tries to manipulate the couple into breaking up for good, but Michael and Kimmy decide to get married after all. Jules finally confesses her love to Michael and passionately kisses him. Kimmy witnesses this and drives away distraught, pursued by Michael, who in turn is pursued by Jules in a caterer’s truck. Jules calls George while driving and explains the situation, who assures her that Michael loves Kimmy and Jules has now a brief opportunity to ensure the couple are reconciled before the scheduled time of the wedding. Finding Michael at Chicago Union Station, Jules confesses to writing the email to his boss that accidentally got sent by Walter’s secretary just to win Michael back. Although angry with her Michael forgives her and tells her that here at the station is where he proposed to Kimmy and she accepted, and they split up to look for Kimmy.

Jules finds Kimmy in the bathroom of Comiskey Park. Amid a crowd of onlookers, Kimmy confronts Jules for interfering with Michael. Jules apologizes, assuring Kimmy that Michael truly loves her, and they reconcile. The wedding proceeds, and at the reception, Jules gives a heartfelt speech as Kimmy’s maid of honor. Jules allows the newlyweds to temporarily have “The Way You Look Tonight” as their song until they find their own song.

Jules and Michael share their goodbyes, both finally moving on. On the phone with George, Jules is surprised to see him at the reception, and they dance together.

Cast

• Julia Roberts as Julianne Potter, a 27-year-old food critic who realizes she’s in love with her best friend and tries to win him back after he decides to marry someone else.
• Dermot Mulroney as Michael O’Neal, Julianne’s best friend and a sportswriter who is engaged to Kimmy Wallace.
• Cameron Diaz as Kimberly “Kimmy” Wallace, Michael’s bubbly and lovable fiancée who comes from an affluent family.
• Rupert Everett as George Downes, Julianne’s gay friend later love interest and editor who pretends to be engaged to Julianne to make Michael jealous.
• Philip Bosco as Walter Wallace, husband of Isabelle, father of Kimmy, and future father-in-law of Michael; he is a rich businessman who owns the Chicago White Sox baseball team.
• M. Emmet Walsh as Joe O’Neal, father of Michael and Scotty O’Neal and future father-in-law of Kimmy; he suggested that Julianne be Michael’s best man, but had to go with Scotty instead.
• Rachel Griffiths as Samantha Newhouse, fraternal twin sister of Amanda and one of Kimmy’s bridesmaids.
• Carrie Preston as Amanda Newhouse, fraternal twin sister of Samantha and one of Kimmy’s bridesmaids.
• Susan Sullivan as Isabelle Wallace, wife of Walter, mother of Kimmy, and future mother-in-law of Michael.
• Charlie Trotter, owner of Charlie Trotters restaurant, as himself

In addition, Christopher Masterson plays Michael’s younger brother, Scotty, while Paul Giamatti briefly appears as a bellman who encounters Julianne in a hotel hallway.

Reception

Box office

My Best Friend’s Wedding opened at No. 2 at the North American box office, making $21,678,377 USD in its opening weekend, behind Batman & Robin. It stayed in the top 10 weekly U.S. box-office for six consecutive weeks, and eventually earned $127,120,029. The worldwide gross total stands at $299,288,605 (listed as one of the 10 biggest films of 1997 both domestically and worldwide).

• My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, My Best Friend’s Wedding holds an approval rating of 75% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “Thanks to a charming performance from Julia Roberts and a subversive spin on the genre, My Best Friend’s Wedding is a refreshingly entertaining romantic comedy.”^[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.^[10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A−” on an A+ to F scale.

Total Film praised the film, giving it four stars out of five and stating “[h]ere [Roberts] banishes all memories of Mary Reilly (1996) and I Love Trouble (1994) with a lively, nay sparkling, performance. Smiling that killer smile, shedding those winning tears, delivering great lines with effortless charm, Roberts is back where she rightly belongs – not in grey period costume, but as the sexy queen of laughs.” The review also called the film “a perfect date movie” that “proves Roberts isn’t as crap as we all thought she was.”

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praises Roberts as “riper, more dexterous with a comic line, slyer with modulation,” concluding that “Roberts puts her heart into this one.” Joanna Berry of Radio Times gave it four stars out of five, observing that this “sparkling comedy” proved to be a career-resurrecting film for Julia Roberts.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars and said, “One of the pleasures of Ronald Bass’ screenplay is the way it subverts the usual comic formulas that would fuel a plot like this.” CNN movie reviewer Carol Buckland said Roberts “lights up the screen”, calling the film “fluffy fun”.

Andrew Johnston, writing in Time Out New York, observed, “The best scene occurs when Julianne’s gay editor and confidant George (Everett) turns up in Chicago and poses as her fiancé, seizing control of the film for five delicious minutes. His devilish impersonation of a straight guy is priceless, and things only get better when he leads a sing-along at the rehearsal dinner. At times like this, when the film spins into pop culture overdrive it stops being a star vehicle and flirts with genuine comic brilliance.” Michelle Regna of BuzzFeed, in 2015, claimed it is one of the greatest romantic comedy films of all time.

Awards and recognition

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on June 17, 1997, and contains covers of familiar songs. It was praised by AllMusic for working “better than it should, since most of the vocalists… concentrate on the songs”.

Chart positions

Certifications

Remakes

Two official remakes with the same title have been released.

• A Chinese version was released in China on August 5, 2016.
• A Mexican remake was presented in Mexico on February 14, 2019.

In addition, the 2002 Bollywood film Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai (“It’s My Friend’s Wedding”) and the 2000 Kollywood film Parthen Rasithen were partially inspired by the film.

Stage musical

Main article: My Best Friend’s Wedding (musical)

A stage musical adaptation of the film featuring songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and a book by screenplay writer Ronald Bass and Jonathan Harvey was announced to open in September 2021 (originally due to open September 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic) on a UK and Ireland tour, and was due to be directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and star Alexandra Burke as Julianne Potter. However on June 30, 2021, it was announced that the production was canceled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the producers revealing they hope to revisit the show at a later date.

The musical made its world premiere at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Fall 2024, running from September 26 to October 27.

Sequel

While promoting his Netflix show The Hunting Wives, Dermot Mulroney revealed to the New York Post that talks of a sequel are underway. On July 29, 2025, the sequel was finally announced to be in early development, with Celine Song to write the screenplay.

Comments