Steve Lawrence’s “Night & Day,” was the first time I heard the intro verse to the Cole Porter masterpiece. Since then, I’ve always tried to add it to sets.
Played by The Mark Kopitzke Quartet
@markkopitzke vocals,
@eric.bell.music piano,
@anthony_ty_johnson drums,
@mackenzie_lei bass
So saddened to hear of Steve Lawrence’s passing. When I was a young singer, Frank Sinatra’s version of the song was the only one I knew, but when I heard Steve Lawrence sing those opening notes, I stopped whatever I was doing, enraptured. The switch back and forth from latin to swing was fun and so smooth as well. So much so, I had to reference it in our symphony show’s arrangement of this song in a medley for
@kingsofsoulandswing What a voice. Rest well, Mr. Lawrence.
“Cole Porter gave various accounts of how he came to write “Night and Day.” He once said the music was influenced by an Islamic call to worship he’d heard while traveling in Morocco. Porter also said he began the tune on a Saturday night at New York’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and wrote the lyrics the next day while lying on a beach in Newport, Rhode Island. He wrote it specifically for Fred Astaire. “Night and Day” is the song with which a besotted Astaire finally captures the stubborn heart of Claire Luce on Broadway and Ginger Rogers in the Hollywood version, “The Gay Divorcee.” He sings, they dance, oh, did they ever, and she melts. In the film, the producers replaced all of the original Cole Porter tunes except for “Night and Day.” It begins with one of the most unusual verses in popular song, pulsing, monotonous, insistent.
Over the first eight bars of the song, just one relentless note, repeated 35 times. To great effect, says singer and pianist Steve Ross”
—Melissa Block, NPR Weekend Edition, 2000
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.
@coleporter_official
#stevelawrence #coleporter #singer #drums #keys #bassplayer #franksinatra #crooner #quartet
