"I Could Have Danced All Night" is a song from the musicalMy Fair Lady, with music written by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner,[1] published in 1956. The song is sung by the musical's heroine, Eliza Doolittle, expressing her exhilaration and excitement after an impromptu dance with her tutor, Henry Higgins, in the small hours of the morning. In a counterpoint during the second of 3 rounds, two maids and the housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, urge Eliza to go to bed, but she ignores them.
Andy Williams covered the song on his 1964 album The Great Songs from My Fair Lady and Other Broadway Hits.[4]Shirley Bassey recorded and released this song on two 1965 albums, including "Shirley Stops The Shows" released in the UK, and 'Shirley Bassey Belts The Best' released in the USA. Petula Clark recorded a version for her 1968 album The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener.[5]
The song was performed by Jane Powell in the 1959 NBC television special Sunday Showcase "Give My Regards to Broadway",[6] for which a kinescope recording still exists.
I Could Have Danced All Night was performed by young British sopranoHollie Steel during her audition on Britain's Got Talent. She later recorded the song on her debut album.[8]
Noted Wagnerian soprano Birgit Nilsson recorded the song for the 1960 gala performance recording of Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus on the Decca/London label. Herbert von Karajan conducted the recording of the operetta, but the conductor of this excerpt, as well as that of most of the other gala excerpts included, is not identified.
On the children's show Sesame Street, Count von Count, his wife the Countess, and her mother Mama Countess sing a song called "I Could Have Counted All Night", which spoofs "I Could Have Danced All Night".[9]
