That's Entertainment! (song)

"That's Entertainment!" is a popular song with music written by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz.^[1] The song was published in 1952 and was written especially for the 1953 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film The Band Wagon. The song is performed in the film by Jack Buchanan supported by Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, and Oscar Levant. In 2004, the song finished at number 45 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.^[2] It was orchestrated for the film by Conrad Salinger under the musical direction of Adolph Deutsch.^[3]

Legacy

The song is perhaps most associated with Judy Garland, who recorded it for her 1960 LP That's Entertainment!, using a shortened version of the original Salinger arrangement. A year later, a live version appeared on Garland's Grammy-winning double album Judy at Carnegie Hall. She also performed it on The Judy Garland Show where she dances around the TV stage during an orchestral interlude.

The song has become nearly synonymous with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.^[4] The studio used the tune for its 1955-56 television series MGM Parade which featured clips from past and forthcoming MGM films. The song title was later used for MGM's popular retrospective film series featuring clips from its golden age, as That's Entertainment!.^[5] The original 1974 release spawned two sequels in which the song was retained. The studio also used a remix of Judy Garland's recording of the song to underscore the trailer for the January 15, 2023 launch of the network and streaming platform MGM+, following the network's rebrand from Epix. The 1974 film was also added to the network's streaming platform the same day as the rebrand's launch.

In That's Entertainment, Part II, some new lyrics were added to the song and performed by hosts Gene Kelly and Astaire. The film credited those lyrics to Dietz and Saul Chaplin, one of the film's producers, though Chaplin was known as a composer, not a lyricist.

In 1979, the song was sung with parody lyrics by the villain Mordru in the television special Legends of the Superheroes. In the 1980s, the song was performed, again with new lyrics, by Larry Santos in a commercial for TV Guide magazine.^{[citation needed]}

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga performed the song in the American musical thriller film Joker: Folie à Deux (2024).^[6] Lady Gaga released a solo cover version of the song on Harlequin (2024), her companion album to the film.^[7]

Renditions

• Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall (2007)
• Lady Gaga – Harlequin (2024)

References

1. Furia, Philip & Lasser, Michael (2006). America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. Routledge. p. 240. ISBN 9781135471996.
2. "AFI's 100 YEARS…100 SONGS". Afi.com. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
3. Fordin, Hugh (1996). MGM Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit, Da Capo Press, NY, p. 409.
4. That's Entertainment!: Songs from M-G-M's Greatest Movie Musicals. Alfred Music. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7390-5754-4.
5. Armstrong, Richard B.; Armstrong, Mary Willems (2015-07-11). Encyclopedia of Film Themes, Settings and Series. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-1230-0.
6. Deville, Chris (March 23, 2024). "Joker: Folie à Deux Is "Mostly A Jukebox Musical" Featuring 15 "Very Well-Known" Songs". Stereogum. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
7. Daw, Stephen (September 27, 2024). "Lady Gaga's 'Joker' Companion Album 'Harlequin': All 13 Songs Ranked". Billboard. Retrieved September 27, 2024.