The Astaire Story

In 1952 Fred Astaire joined Oscar Peterson and some of Verve's best sidemen to lay down 38 jazzy, laid-back versions of songs he had made famous in his Broadway and film career. (Seventeen were compiled as Steppin' Out: Astaire Sings.) While Astaire was not blessed with great vocal chops, the best American songwriters including George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter loved him for his unerring sense of rhythm and sympathetic treatment of lyrics, qualities that are well displayed here. Tony Bennett hit the pop mainstream with his 1994 album of jazzy Astaire standards. Here's the original. --David Horiuchi