Let's Face the Music and Dance

This article is about the Irving Berlin song. For the Willie Nelson album, see Let's Face the Music and Dance (album). For the album by Maynard Ferguson, see Let's Face the Music and Dance (Maynard Ferguson album).

"Let's Face the Music and Dance" is a song written in 1936 by Irving Berlin for the film Follow the Fleet, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire and featured in a celebrated dance duet with Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It is also used in Pennies from Heaven, where Astaire's voice is lip-synched by Steve Martin, and in a celebrated Morecambe and Wise sketch involving newsreader Angela Rippon.

In 1997, it was used in a famous advert for Allied Dunbar.

Barbra Streisand performed a line in her "Color Me Barbra Medley" from the TV special and album "Color Me Barbra". In "New Killer Star", song from David Bowie 2003 album Reality, there's a reference of the title before the chorus. The BBC used Nat King Cole's version of the song as their theme music for the mockumentary series Twenty Twelve.

Notable recordings

• Bea Arthur – Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends (2002)
• Tony Bennett – The Beat of My Heart (1957), Bennett/Berlin (1987)
• Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga – Cheek to Cheek (2014)
• Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band – All Smiles (1968) (aka Let's Face the Music)
• Shirley Bassey – Let's Face the Music (1962)
• Nat King Cole – Let's Face the Music! (1964)
• Natalie Cole – Stardust (1996)
• Barbara Cook – Mostly Sondheim (2002) – in a medley with "The Song is You" (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein, II)
• Doris Day – Hooray For Hollywood (1959)
• Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook (1958)
• Jane Krakowski – 'The Laziest Gal in Town' – Jane Krakowski Live at Feinsteins's Loews Regency (2010) – Solo Album
• Diana Krall – When I Look in Your Eyes (1999)
• Susannah McCorkle – Ballad Essentials (2008)
• Anita O'Day – Pick Yourself Up (1956)
• Taco Ockerse – Let's Face The Music (1984)
• Renato Russo – The Stonewall Celebration Concert (1994)
• Frank Sinatra – Ring-A-Ding-Ding (1961), Trilogy: Past Present Future (1980)
• Caetano Veloso – Omaggio a Federico e Giulietta (1999)
• Steph Le Sueur – L&D gets Musical (2016)