A Fine Romance is a popular song composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, written for the 1936 RKO musical film Swing Time starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In the film, Astaire and Rogers perform the number as a comedic duet in a snowy outdoor setting, with the lyric's ironic conceit turning the phrase into a complaint about romantic indifference rather than a celebration of love. The song won widespread popularity upon release and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, though it lost to another Kern-Fields composition from the same film, The Way You Look Tonight. The melody's charm lies in its conversational quality, with a stepwise motion and gently syncopated rhythm that mirrors the playful push and pull of the lyric. Fields's words are among her wittiest, filled with sardonic similes that have made the song a favorite for singers who can deliver both humor and tenderness. A Fine Romance became a standard embraced by jazz musicians and vocalists alike, with notable recordings by Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra among many others. The Kern-Fields partnership on Swing Time produced some of the finest songs in the American popular songbook, and A Fine Romance remains one of its most enduring and frequently performed entries.
