Night and Day

“Night and Day” is a popular song by Cole Porter that was written for the 1932 musical Gay Divorce. It is perhaps Porter’s most popular contribution to the Great American Songbook and has been recorded by dozens of musicians. NPR says “within three months of the show’s opening, more than 30 artists had recorded the song.”

Fred Astaire introduced “Night and Day” on November 29, 1932, when Gay Divorce opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

The song was so associated with Porter that when Hollywood filmed his life story in 1946, with Cary Grant, the movie was entitled Night and Day.

A week before the musical Gay Divorce opened in November 1932, Astaire gathered with Leo Reisman and his orchestra at Victor’s Gramercy Recording Studio in Manhattan to make a record of two Cole Porter compositions, “Night and Day” backed with “I’ve Got You on My Mind”. All was done under the shadow cast by the 1929 stock market crash, which had spawned the Great Depression, a severe economic downturn that lasted through the 1930s. In just over two years, record industry revenues had fallen from $100 million to $6 million, driving all but three companies (RCA Victor, American Record Corporation (ARC) and Columbia) out of business. The single was released as Victor 24193 on January 13, 1933, and it went on to become the top selling record of the year, with 22,811 copies sold.

On May 23, 1933, Astaire recorded it again (due to anti-trust concerns) for Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd., which was now a part of Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). It was released in the United Kingdom in October on Columbia DB 1215, backed with “After You, Who?”, another Porter composition. Reisman, under contract to RCA Victor, was unable to accompany Astaire on this record. It can be distinguished from the US version because it is fifteen seconds shorter (3:10).

“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.” – Pablo Casals