So Near and yet So Far

For the 1912 film, see So Near, yet So Far.

A 1941 recording by Fred Astaire

"So Near and yet So Far" is a song written by Cole Porter, for the 1941 film You'll Never Get Rich , where it was introduced by Fred Astaire, and accompanied a dance with Astaire and Rita Hayworth, choreographed by Robert Alton. ^[1] Astaire and Hayworth's performance was significant as the only occasion where Astaire's female dancing partner led the choreography of the dance. ^[2] Porter's biographer, William McBrien described the song as "beautiful and highly successful". ^[3]

Priscilla Peña Ovalle in her book Dance and the Hollywood Latina describes the song as a "latune", a "tune with a Latin beat and an English-language lyric" that was a "U.S. consumer-friendly approximation" of an Afro-Cuban rumba. ^[4] Theorist Gustavo Perez Firmat discussed "So Near and yet So Far" in his book The Havana Habit and described it as "the most elegant rumba ever captured on film". ^[5]

Notable recordings

• Eugenie Baird with Tony Pastor (1941 - Bluebird B-11267) ^[6]
• Bobby Short – Bobby Short Loves Cole Porter (Atlantic, 1972) ^[7]
• Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Loves Cole (Atlantic, 1972) ^[8]

References

1. David Parkinson (31 May 2007). The Rough Guide to Film Musicals . Rough Guides Limited. p.  221. ISBN   978-1-84353-650-5.
2. Ovalle 2010, p. 85.
3. William McBrien (2011). Cole Porter. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 244. ISBN   978-0-307-79188-7.
4. Ovalle 2010, p. 153.
5. Gustavo Perez Firmat (26 October 2010). The Havana Habit. Yale University Press. p. 14. ISBN   978-0-300-16876-1.
6. Idol, W. Chase Jr. (September 14, 1941). "Records". North Carolina, High Point. The High Point Enterprise. p. 12. Retrieved November 9, 2015– via Newspapers.com.
7. "www.allmusic.com". www.allmusic.com. Retrieved July 5, 2024.
8. "Ella Loves Cole". AllMusic . Retrieved June 6, 2024.

• Ovalle, Priscilla Peña (2010). Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom. New York: Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-0-8135-5025-1.