they can't take that away from me

 

George and Ira Gershwin made the move along the bumpy road to love and into movie soundtracks to come up with the bittersweet romantic declarations of this enduring foxtrot.  After the commercial failure of 'Porgy and Bess', the duo was commissioned to write the music for the film 'Shall We Dance', starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  George did the score and Ira wrote the lyrics. 'They Can't Take That Away from Me' drew inspiration from 'The Song is Ended (but the Melody Lingers On)' by Irving Berlin.  In the film, Astaire sings the song to Rogers as they take the ferry from New Jersey to Manhattan.  George felt the song appeared too briefly in the movie and was concerned that it wouldn't get enough exposure to be a hit.  'They Can't Take That Away from Me' actually charted four times that year alone, with Fred Astaire's version with Johnny Green and His Orchestra spending ten weeks at number one.  Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra took it to number six, Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra had a version with Jack Leonard singing that hit number eleven, and Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra made it to number twelve with their rendition. George Gershwin died just two months after the release of 'Shall We Dance'; so he didn't live to see the success he so craved.   He was posthumously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 1937 Oscars; his only Oscar nomination.

Our romance won't end on a sorrowful note,
Though by tomorrow you're gone;
The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote,
The melody lingers on.
They may take you from me, I'll miss your fond caress.
But though they take you from me, I'll still possess.

The way you wear your hat
The way you sip your tea
The memory of all that
No, no, they can't take that away from me

The way your smile just beams
The way you sing off key
The way you haunt my dreams
No, no, they can't take that away from me

We may never, never meet again
On the bumpy road to love
Still, I'll always, always keep the memory of

The way you hold your knife
The way we danced till three
The way you changed my life
No, no, they can't take that away from me
No, they can't take that away from me

We may never, never meet again
On the bumpy road to love
Still, I'll always, always keep the memory of

The way you hold your knife
The way we danced till three
The way you changed my life
No, no, they can't take that away from me
No, they can't take that away
Can't take that away
Can't take that away from me

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in 'Shall We Dance'

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Frank Sinatra

Billie Holiday

Charlie Parker