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

"Taking a Chance on Love"

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

"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)

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

Notes

• 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

Cite this page: "Taking a Chance on Love": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/t/taking_a_chance_on_love.html