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Singer/dancer/actor
Fred Astaire introduced
Irving Berlin’s
“Cheek to Cheek”
in the RKO motion picture
Top Hat in 1935.
The song immediately roared
into the charts:
-
Fred Astaire (1935,
vocal, #1)
- Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra
(1935, #2)
- Guy Lombardo and His
Royal Canadians (1935, #2)
- Phil Ohman and His Orchestra
(1935, #5)
- Boswell Sisters (1935,
vocal, #10)
The American public
went crazy for the duo
of
Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers in the
mid-1930s. Their RKO
musicals were the
perfect escapist fare,
showing how the “other
half lived” during the
tough days of the
Depression. Astaire
(dressed to the nines,
suave and debonair) and
Rogers (coquettish and
elegantly clad in
evening attire) along
with superb music and
choreography made these
films sure-fire hits.
Top Hat was
Berlin’s second musical
for Astaire/Rogers.
“Cheek to Cheek” is one
of the best songs he
wrote for their films.
In typical Berlin
fashion, part of the
tune had already been
written with a working
title of “Moon Over
Napoli” and intended for
an un-produced Broadway
show titled
More Cheers. Berlin
effortlessly reworked
the number into “Cheek
to Cheek.” In Edward
Jablonski’s biography,
Irving Berlin: American
Troubadour,
Berlin related the
effect Astaire had on
him: “He’s a real
inspiration for a
writer. I’d never have
written
Top Hat without
him.”
The radio program
“Your Hit Parade”
debuted in 1935. On
September 29, 1935, the
program featured all
five Berlin songs
written for
Top Hat, the
first time music from a
film had received such
coverage from the
program. Astaire’s
version of “Cheek to
Cheek” was in the charts
for 18 weeks, and his
versions of the other
songs from the show, “No
Strings,” “Top Hat,
White Tie and Tails,”
“Isn’t This a Lovely
Day,” and “The Piccolino,”
were in the charts from
six to eleven weeks.
“Cheek to Cheek” took
some time to become
comfortable to jazz
musicians. Its unusual,
72-bar length and
A-A-B-C-A structure
proved a bit daunting
for some players, but
the more advanced ones
found the tune the
perfect challenge with
its engaging melodic and
chordal structure.
Berlin’s song is a
perfect evocation of
Astaire’s dancing with
Rogers, explaining how
his film character is in
“heaven” and seems to
find “happiness” when
“dancing cheek to
cheek.” On the C section
of the tune, where it
goes into minor, Astaire
pleads “dance with me, I
want my arms about you.”
Then in the return to
the A section he
confesses “my heart
beats so that I can
hardly speak” when
“dancing cheek to
cheek.”
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