Notable Recordings
"Night and Day" has been recorded many times, notably by Fred Astaire, Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Bassey, Ringo Starr, Sondre Lerche, Doris Day, Charlie Parker, Deanna Durbin, Jamie Cullum, Etta James, and U2.
Sinatra recorded the song at least five times including with Axel Stordahl in his first solo session in 1942 and again with him in 1947, with Nelson Riddle in 1956 for A Swingin' Affair!, with Don Costa in 1961 for Sinatra and Strings, and even a disco version with Joe Beck in 1977.
Dionne Warwick recorded it for her 1990 album Dionne Warwick Sings Cole Porter.
Shirley Bassey recorded it for her 1959 album The Bewitching Miss Bassey.
Doris Day recorded it for her 1958 album Hooray for Hollywood.
Fitzgerald's most celebrated recording of the song occurred on her 1956 album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook.
Everything But the Girl chose this song for their first single in 1983. It made #92 in August 1982.
The song was recorded by Ringo Starr in 1970 for his first solo album Sentimental Journey.
The rock/jam band Phish has played the song live only once in their more than 20-year career: at a private wedding on August 12, 1989.
The song was recorded by U2 in 1990 and appeared on the Red Hot + Blue compilation album. Thomas Anders (of Modern Talking fame) recorded his version in 1997 on the album Live Concert. Chicago added a version in 1995 on their return-to-their-roots-disc, Night & Day: Big Band; Rod Stewart recorded a version for his 2004 album Stardust: the Great American Songbook 3. A rendition was also recorded by The Temptations, which was featured on the soundtrack of the 2000 movie What Women Want.
"Night and Day" also reappeared on the American pop charts in 1967, done by Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66.
In 2004 a version of "Night and Day" was included in the biographical film about Cole Porter, De-Lovely, sung by John Barrowman and Kevin Kline. The song was also recorded in 2005 by Sondre Lerche on his album Duper Sessions. In 2007 it was recorded by Bebel Gilberto with a bossa nova approach on her album Momento.
Allan Sherman's 1965 album Allan in Wonderland included a version, with Porter's music and words unchanged, but with punctuation marks included, so it starts like this:
- Night and Day;
- You are the one;
- Only you, beneath the moon, and under the sun ;
Victor Borge was better known for verbal punctuation than was Sherman, but in the case of this song, Borge would start playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" op. 27, with its opening left-hand octave, and then would begin playing the three right-hand notes, seguéing into the beginning of "Night and Day".
Little River Band references the song in their song "Reminiscing". One line of the song states "And the Porter tune/Made us dance across the room", while in the background the backup singers sing the words "Night and Day".
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