Let's Face the Music and Dance

About Let's Face the Music and Dance

"Let's Face the Music and Dance" is a song written in 1936 by Irving Berlin for the film Follow the Fleet, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and featured in a celebrated dance duet with Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It is also used in Pennies from Heaven, where Astaire's voice is lip-synched by Steve Martin, and in a celebrated Morecambe and Wise sketch involving newsreader Angela Rippon. In the 1990s, Nat 'King' Cole's version was used in a famous advert for Allied Dunbar; in response to this (and to the song's use by Torvill and Dean in the 1994 Winter Olympics) this version was reissued and reached number 30 in the UK charts in March 1994. The song has been recorded by a plethora of artists. Hit versions in 1936 were by Fred Astaire and by Ted Fio Rito & His Orchestra (vocal by Stanley Hickman). Ella Fitzgerald included this song in her landmark Verve Records release: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook. In 2014, Scottish singer Todd Gordon recorded a duet with New York-based jazz singer Sunny Kim included on the album, Love dot com. more »