De Quoi A-T-Elle L'Air Ce Soir? (Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, David MacNeil) 5.31
Mark Steyn, vocals
with orchestra arranged and conducted by Kevin Amos
from the album Goldfinger This song is better known as "The Way You Look Tonight", sung by Fred Astaire to Ginger Rogers in the 1936 film Swing Time and by just about every major vocalist in the eight decades since. Mark previewed his recording of the song to Hugh Hewitt's radio listeners and explained its genesis:
HUGH HEWITT: I played last week your French version of The Way You Look Tonight, and we loved that song. And thank you very much for recording it. Is that going to be on the new Christmas album?
MARK STEYN: Well, that was ...you’re very kind. That actually was just like a last minute thing, because I was in the studio with the guys and I was going to attempt to record something terribly ambitious. And I realized, because I’ve been distracted by family matters the last few weeks, that it was actually too difficult to learn, and I wasn’t going to do it. So I thought oh, what would be nice and easy? And it’s very odd ...because normally I start with the song - you know, if it’s a melody I like, or it’s a lyric I like, or you know, both, really. But in this case I had the sort of idea for a sound. I just wanted a sort of gently rhythmic guitar, and I had the sound of the backing singers, and the sax on top of it, and I had that sort of sound in my head. And I thought well, what would be a nice song to do in that style? And knowing that you and your missus love 'The Way You Look Tonight', I thought I love 'The Way You Look Tonight', too, but I felt it had largely been sung. So I thought I’d sing it in French, which is just different enough, because the rhymes fall in different places.
They do. And combined with Nick Mills' alto sax solo and Emma, Jan and Mary on backing vocals it gives a new lick of paint to a familiar old landmark. We hope you like it. |
