Night and Day

Cole Porter wrote this for the 1932 Broadway musical play The Gay Divorce, in which Fred Astaire sang it. It was the last Broadway show for Astaire and the last show that he performed with his sister, Adele.

This song also featured in the 1934 film version, The Gay Divorcee (The Hays Office, Hollywood's self-censorship body, determined that the original title was too controversial). The film starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their first leading roles together. This song was the only Cole Porter musical number used from the Broadway production. Another song from the film, "The Continental," by Conrad and Magidson, won the Academy Award for Best Song that year.

Porter was coy about the origins of this song. Once, he claimed it was inspired by Moroccan drums and an Islamic chant he heard while cruising down the Nile River in Egypt. Another time he said the idea struck him on a Saturday night at New York's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and he finished it while stretched across the sands in Newport, Rhode Island, the next day. Then again, he penned it specifically for Fred Astaire's heartsick character in The Gay Divorce.