"Taking a Chance on Love": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

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Taking a Chance on Love
Written: 1940	Music by: Vernon Duke	Words by: John Latouche and Ted Fetter	Written for: Cabin in the Sky (show, 1940)
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(Please complete or pause one video before starting another.)	Jane Monheit performing "Taking a Chance on Love" Michael Kanin, piano; Rick Montalbano, drums; Neal Miner, Bass. (at Java Jazz Festival, 2010, Jakarta, Indonesia) More Performances of "Taking a Chance on Love" in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet (Video credit)

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"Taking a Chance on Love"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge

About the Show Cabin in the Sky / Origins of the Song

Other songs written for the show Cabin in the Sky currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook:

1. Cabin in the Sky

For a complete listing of songs used in the original production of this show, see IBDB song list.

Ken Bloom,
The American Songbook: The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs, New York: Black Dog and Leventhal, 2005.

Vernon Duke,
Passport to Paris,
Boston: Little Brown, 1955

"Taking a Chance on Love" was written for the 1940 Broadway show Cabin in the Sky. As Ken Bloom tells the story, Vernon Duke who wrote the music for "Taking a Chance on Love" stated in his autobiography (Passport to Paris, Boston: Little Brown, 1955) that while looking for "a heart-warming number" for the show Cabin in the Sky," he came across a never used song of his called "Fooling Around with Love," a song he had written some time before with a lyric by Ted Fetter: "I tried it out on Latouche; he fell for the tune, but thought the title not sufficiently 'on the nose' for the dramatic situation. An afternoon's work, with an assist from Fetter, followed, and what emerged was 'Taking a Chance on Love.' one of my better known songs" (Bloom, p. 215).

Ethel Waters sings "Taking a Chance on Love"
in the 1943 movie version of Cabin in the Sky.
(with her are Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson (with guitar)
and Bill Bailey (dancing)

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Credits

("Taking a Chance on Love" page)

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

Jane Monheit: JavaJazzFest
Ethel Waters, "Taking a Chance on Love": SimmySlydeJr2

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The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"Taking a Chance on Love"

(All Record/Video Cabinet entries below
include a music-video
of this page's featured song.
The year given is for when the studio
track was originally laid down
or when the live performance was given.)

Performer/Recording Index
(*indicates accompanying music-video)

Performer 1 (year)
Performer 2 (year)

Year
Artist
album: title

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