A Foggy Day

A Foggy Day, originally titled A Foggy Day (In London Town), was composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin in early 1937 for the RKO film A Damsel in Distress. The song was introduced on screen by Fred Astaire, whose Brunswick single reached number three on the pop charts that year. Written before a film script even existed, the Gershwins drew their inspiration directly from the P.G. Wodehouse novel on which the film was based. The composition follows a classic AABA form, opening with a melancholy, introspective tone that evokes London fog before shifting to an optimistic resolution, mirroring the lyrical arc from self-pity to sunshine. This emotional contrast, achieved through subtle harmonic movement and a melody that may echo Chopin's Prelude in E minor, gives the song its distinctive character. A Foggy Day quickly became a widely performed jazz standard and a cornerstone of the Great American Songbook, recorded hundreds of times across pop, jazz, and orchestral settings. Bob Crosby's 1938 version also charted. Louis Armstrong's rendition on the 1956 album Ella and Louis with Ella Fitzgerald stands among the tune's most celebrated recordings, and Wynton Marsalis recorded it on Marsalis Standard Time Vol. I in 1986. Both of those recordings, along with a 2021 version by LA Jazz Connection, are featured on AllSolos.