That Old Feeling is a torch song composed by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Lew Brown, written for the 1938 film Vogues of 1938, where it was performed by Virginia Verrill and danced by Georgie Tapps. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, an early milestone in Fain's distinguished career that would later yield two Oscar wins for Secret Love and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing. The melody follows an ABAC structure and features chromatic coloration that gives it harmonic depth beyond typical Tin Pan Alley fare. Musicologist Alec Wilder praised the distinctive whole-note passages in the opening measures and the lyrical quality of the closing section, while noting some stiffness from repeated notes in the second section. The composition achieved immediate commercial success, with Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra taking it to number one on the charts for four weeks in 1937. It quickly crossed over from popular song to jazz standard, attracting interpretations from artists including Teddy Wilson, whose early solo piano rendition demonstrated the tune's suitability for improvisation, and Buck Clayton, Louis Armstrong with Oscar Peterson, and many others. The song has been recorded extensively across jazz, pop, and vocal traditions, and it appeared prominently in the 1997 film That Old Feeling starring Bette Midler.
