"I Won't Dance": Song history, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

"I Won't Dance"

Songs written for the 1933 Broadway show Roberta (1933) currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook:

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

Deborah Grace Winer,
On the Sunny Side of the Street: The Life and Lyrics of Dorothy Fields, (foreward by Betty Comden)
New York: Schirmer Books, 1997

Before the "I Won't Dance" many know from the 1935 Astaire-Rogers movie Roberta made its American debut in the film, the song with a significantly different lyric by Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach appeared in Three Sisters, the show it was originally written for. Three Sisters opened at the Drury Lane Theater in London in May, 1934 where the song was introduced by Adele Dixon, Richard Dolman and ensemble. The show was not a success, lasting only three weeks, and it never made it to Broadway as Kern and company had hoped it would. Fortunately for "I Won't Dance" Fred Astaire had attended one of the show's few performances.

Astaire looking for another dance vehicle for Roberta for him and Ginger to perform remembered "I Won't Dance" and brought it to the attention of RKO production chief Pandro Berman. Berman liked Fred's idea but wanted the lyric jazzed up; and that's how Fields, who was already working on the film writing the words for Kern's new melody "Lovely To Look At" as well as augmenting other lyrics, got involved. It was this new version of the song with Fields' crisper, hipper phrasing along with its performance in the film by Fred and Ginger that resurrected the song. Fred's memory as well as his and Ginger's feet most likely kept "I Won't Dance" from dying a dusty death -- and got it started along its journey to immortal life as a standard.

A Couple of Talented Dudes
Fred Astaire playing "I Won't Dance" (No camera trick, he's really playing.) and conducting (maybe not really), but refusing to dance -- until a minute later (See below.) when Ginger joins him on the dance floor doing everything he does--but, of course, backwards and in heels (1935).

• Jane Monheit and Michael Bublé: komodragon
• Fred Plays "I Won't Dance." ThomShelford
• Fred and Ginger dance to "I Won't Dance.": inonemus

Notes

• Other songs written for the movie Roberta currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook :
• 1. Lovely To Look At
• 1. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (used in the movie)
• 2. The Touch of Your Hand (not used in movie)
• 3. Yesterdays (used in the movie)
• For a complete listing of songs used in the movie Roberta , see IMDB soundtrack .
• (Please complete or pause one video before starting another.)

Cite this page: "I Won't Dance": Song history, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/i/i_wont_dance.html