Level: 3
Tuning: Standard

In 1932, performing for the first time without his sister, Fred Astaire introduced this classic tune in the broadway show "Gay Divorce," later reprising it in the 1934 movie "The Gay Divorcee." The public took to "Night And Day" right away; Irving Berlin told Porter he thought it was the best song of the year and Cole's best effort. It was a #1 hit for Astaire and many singers have charted with it since then; ASCAP rates it one of the top money-earners of all time. Probably Porter's most popular tune, it is the title of a bio-pic made about him in 1946, starring Cary Grant. (The 2004 biopic, "De-Lovely," starring Kevin Kline is more realistic.) The intro/verse of "Night and Day," included in this key-of-C arrangement, is often mentioned because of its unusual droning note which keeps repeating while the chords are changing. The chorus has an unusual form for a pop song: A, A, B, C, in which A is a 16-bar phrase and B and C are 8 bars each. C is actually the second half of A.