The Way You Look Tonight
Music, Jerome Kern (1885–1945); words, Dorothy Fields (1904–1974)
Again, details on Jerome Kern can be found in the notes for “They Didn’t Believe Me” (1915). Dorothy Fields has a hell of a backstory. Her father was Lew Fields of the late 19th century comedy vaudeville duo, Weber and Fields––precursors to Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello. Weber and Fields broke up in 1904, with Fields becoming a producer and becoming known ass “The King Of Musical Comedy”. Besides having her poems published in the school literary magazine, young Dorothy was an outstanding basketball player. Her father didn’t want her to go into show business, but she persisted. And persisted. She ended up having one of the longest and most successful songwriting careers of the Great American Songbook era, with an ability and willingness to grow and change with the times that her peers often lacked. In 48 years, she wrote over 400 songs for 15 stage musicals and 26 films. Her last works were for the 1966 play, “Sweet Charity”––which was brought to the screen in 1969 and was Bob Fosse’s film choreography debut––and the 1973 Broadway play, “Seesaw”, which opened the year before her death. Both these works display lyrics whose wit and sparkle were entirely undiminished.
Female songwriters from this era were rare indeed. There was Betty Comden (1917-2006), who wrote “Just In Time” and “The Party’s Over”; Ann Ronell (1905-1993), known for “Willow Weep For Me”, “Rain On The Roof” and “Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?”; Ruth Lowe (1914-1981), who wrote “Put Your Dreams Away For Another Day” and “I’ll Never Smile Again”; and Nancy Hamilton (1908-1985), known for “How High The Moon”. But then there’s no one who compares to Ms. Fields: “A Fine Romance”, “On The Sunny Side Of The Street”, “Don’t Blame Me”, and “Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off, And Start All Over Again”.
When Kern first played the melody of “The Way You Look Tonight”, the turnaround made Fields weep.
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