I agree but I would add that Kern, Porter and Berlin were awfully good, too.

George Gershwin introduced them, so this song has extra layers of meaning for them both. The only time Fred re-used a song and the only woman he sang it to, twice. Lovely.

@@thetoastedhippies1997 THEY WERE ALL FABULOUS....SHEER MAGIC....TIMELESS..!!!

Although Ginger didn't get credit it was her idea to use this Gershwin song cut out from a previous movie.

Eu também! Muito fã de George Gershwin!❤

GERSHWIN WAS A GENIUS. I LOVE HIS SONGS ...!!!!

Let’s not forget the lyricist, his brother, Ira Gershwin!

Good die young

Well said (lovingly observed and felt).

@@pauljung3534 1:21

wow, how exciting and beautiful this story, my condolences for your father!

Diane Kennedy LOVEYA! "I watched this with tears streaming down my face".. "...they don't make movies like this anymore." Or movie performers! An observer after my own heart!

They don't songs like this anymore either.

Don't think they make father's like that anymore either. You should feel lucky. And as I a father myself..I think he would rather not have you cry. Remember him, celebrate him, honor him by treating your own family the way he treated you. But try not to cry.

I'm sad about your loss. I send you my blessings. My Beloved Father passed a couple of years ago and I still cry for him. He loved Ginger & Fred dancing and singing together. May they both Rest In Peace. 🙏🕊️

Not even Kermit and Miss Piggy?😊

@@dtlfc3032a close second!!

Now how could you possibly know that?

She had a big range as an actress. Never better, maybe, than when listening to him sing.

You are quite right. IMO a very underated and, my I say, underused dramatic actress. Cheers!

All that style, grace...l wish it was back. So wonderful.

Harry Plummer At least she won an Oscar for Kitty Foyle, more blessed than Barbara Stanwyck, Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Judy garland and many others.

@@harryplummer6356 She would go on to win an Academy Award for best actress in a few years.

@@ziggyfly04 iggy I know that but from what I have read elsewhere it was a tough road for her to get dramatic roles that's what I meant. IMO she had a lot of 'presence' as well as talent. Cheers!

One short-sighted producer said he couldn't sing. But of course he could. Not Tosca but the beautiful sensitive lyrics and music of Gershwin. Perfectly. There was only ever one Fred Astaire. Irreplaceable.

And he could sing sooooooo great

The popular singer, Mel Torme, once said that Fred Astaire was his favorite singer, so that is high praise.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance to Armenian music

P

These clips seemed pretty real to me.

For me it's Sinatra, but this is a close second. And Sinatra didn't have Ginger. (That sounds like something Frank would say)

BET YOU WISH YOU HAD SOME OF THAT SKILL AND TALENT. I DO.

As smooth as silk! He was the epitome of masculine grace!

@@jasonsennett4116 Don't we all Jason, Don't we all....

I have watched videos of Fred dancing and swear there is a layer of air between his feet and the floor. He was smooth in so many ways - the very definition of class act. We could all probably learn something from his polite demeanor.

June Liang how true! Well said!

Exactly. I'm almost 60 and kind of a late arrival to the game,but now I see what all the fuss was about with them two. I always remember seeing them all over TV as a kid and didn't really appreciate how great they really were til now.

my thoughts exactly

Couldn't agree more. "Bittersweet" in the most elegant sense that word ever carried.

Yes it is.

It's not colorized. It's Technicolor, from the Barclays of Broadway a dozen years after Shall We Dance in which, for some reason, they didn't dance to it.

So true. And so well-stated. "Magical" is absolutely the word for what they were able to do.

Absolutely agree. He really could put a 'swoon' into a song.

My fave Fred song

Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern both rated Astaire (respectively) at at or above the level of any other singer as an interpreter of their songs. Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer also greatly admired his ability to interpret their songs. Probably the most critical of Astaire's singing, among the great songwriters, was George Gerschwin, who wrote this song. Astaire may not have had the vocal range or some of the other attributes of the all time greats, but he had fantastic tone, enunciation, musical phrasing, and he just had a great instinct for the way to interpret a given song.

I've tried, henry8smallwood, honestly I have. But it didn't work. However, that might be because I'm not a man.

Yes, he was. And in a time when leading men had to look like Clark Gable. Well, he didn't quite but he didn't have to. As for looks, he did nicely, thank you, with something....it was, I think, Dorothy Parker or somebody like, who said..."He gave Ginger class, she gave him sex"

Very well put! The dance numbers in their films were always a continuation of the relationship they had established in the dialogue scenes and songs, which is one reason why their films together are still so satisfying, despite the (deliberately) lightweight stories. When Astaire dances with Rita Hayworth, we see the pleasure of two "dancers first and foremost" performers working together at an incredibly high level; when he tap-dances with Eleanor Powell, we see him enjoying the challenge of the one partner who might actually exhaust his stamina; but when he and Ginger Rogers dance together, whether it's a romantic or comic number - and she was great at both - we see two human beings connecting through movement.

Exactly I am glad someone else had this observation.

@@treesny Well observed/described/in- sighted/appreciated - by you too (and all other commentators/fans/lovers present).

Ira was on his brother's wavelength all right.

Absolutely. Ginger was the best re-actress of her time.

got it in one

Great. Hannah Hyam says that their in their last dance, in 1949 in "Barclay's of Broadway" to this song, Rogers was stiff, had a different body, and generally considered it inferior to her other dances with Astaire. I respectfully disagree. There is some discomfort in the older Rogers, but you don't see it unless you stop frame the dance, as Hyam typically admits she does. This is an obsessive way to look at dance....and by the way Astaire mocked it. Nonetheless, "Shall We Dance" would have been much better, if the dance was done on the ferry.

the expression on her face to the line he was singing summed it up perfectly & she was gorgeous

Yup...And in real life according to none other than George Gershwin she did sing a little off key sometimes. It was a private joke that got into the lyrics. All in good humor, for she was a knockout, canny actress who knew exactly how to react to Fred. They were dynamite together.

thanks for that but I'd forgive her anything a timeless beauty with talent

***** good to know that Spain also recognises the talent of Gershwin! thanks for your comment!

Eurig Islwyn Morgan He’s saying “imagine what other work he fould have made!” His work here isn’t bad, but he wishes we could have heard more of Gershwin’s mind.

There is a great poignancy behind this number. The Astaires, Fred and Adele, had known the Gershwins since their vaudeville days and had presented George's and Ira's scores on Broadway, but George did not write seriously for Hollywood until hired for 'Shall We Dance'. Fred and Ginger felt that 'They Can't Take That Away from Me' had been thrown away by the studio- it should have had a dance to follow the song- so they made amends when reunited at Metro for 'The Barkleys of Broadway'. It is said that George's last coherent words on his deathbed were about Fred. After 12 years the proper tribute was paid to America's greatest composer by Hollywood's greatest star.

Because you don't hear yourself. In recordings he would be aware but maybe it was just that he wanted to sing like Bing (or something). But, he was always very critical of his work, so it would figure.

He couldn't half dance as well as if I needed to tell you.

I'm impressed: someone who knows that her beloved one is resting, asleep, waiting to be resurrected onto a cleaned up Paradise EARTH, with evil and wickedness and war and sickness done away with. NO MORE TEARS. Read Rev 21: 3&4

​@@marlybeske3053Only the regenerate! "You must be born again/born of the Spirit" (Jesus in John chapter 3)

Mine was "The Gay Divorcee". In the scene in which he decides to go out and look for Ginger, he does these absolutely poetic bits of business -- taking off his dressing gown, the valet tossing his shirt to him, then choosing a tie (no, not that one -- this!), tying his tie, putting on his jacket, the valet tossing him his hat and cane -- all the while Astaire dances up a storm ... It's called "Needle in a Haystack" and it's my favourite scene of any movie. Delights me every time.

Soooo true!

In general terms I agree with you, but Fred Astaire is a special case. There's never been anyone else like him, then or now.

Heaven help me then, i've loved Fred and Ginger since I was 5 and i'm only 28 now!

Thomas La Pare 'cause everybody knows only old people listen to music that isn't current.

If the music isn't current, it them must be classic!

What I mean is, any great music is timeless. Often people conflate "timeless" and "classic". Music like this is classic in part because it is timeless and can be enjoyed by any generation. Gotta love it!

Iliek Yep, it's timeless, gotta love it!