“Isn’t This a Lovely Day?” is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1935 film Top Hat, where it was introduced by Fred Astaire in the scene where his and Ginger Rogers’ characters are caught in a gazebo during a rainstorm. The lyric is an example of a song which turns a bad situation into a love song, a common style for Irving Berlin.
Fred Astaire recorded the song on three occasions. His 1935 version was assessed as reaching the No. 3 spot in the charts of the day. In 1953, he included the song in his album The Astaire Story. His final recording was in 1975 and the song was included in the album The Golden Age Of Fred Astaire.
In the original “Isn’t This A Lovely Day (To Be Caught In The Rain)?” from Top Hat, the Astaire and Rogers dance in a gazebo as the rain pours down outside. Al Blackstone — a huge fan of their movies and Irving Berlin’s music — and videographer Pierre Marais wanted to find a similar kind of enclosure. They settled on a cobblestoned tunnel in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn. It wasn’t raining, but they shot late at night, giving the video an atmosphere of romance and drama. “My favourite combination,” laughs Blackstone.
