Let's Face the Music and Dance

For the Willie Nelson album, see Let's Face the Music and Dance (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)