This week, Jim is looking for a tune from The Great American Songbook. Searching the list, there’s a predominance of what I’d categorise as Broadway show tunes: some good, some frankly awful and some that even a grumpy old trapped-in-the-seventies geezer like me absolutely love.

And so it happens that this Jerome Kern classic is one of them. For context, I should explain that when Madame and I were first married, we were – not unreasonably, I’d argue – quite ‘soppy’. I remember that we bought an album of essentially gushingly romantic tunes as performed by the English musician Peter Skellern.

This was my favourite track and I am very happy to report that the sentiments expressed remain undimmed by the passage of over fifty years.

Some day, when I’m awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you,
And the way you look tonight.

Yes you’re lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft,
There is nothing for me but to love you,
And the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart,
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.

Lovely, Never, ever change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won’t you please arrange it?
Cause I love you, Just the way you look tonight.

Just the way you look to-night.

Written by Jerome Kern

Song Lyric Sunday 5 July 2026