"Take That Look Off Your Face" is the title of a hit song by

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

composer

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musical ...

. Collaborating with lyricist Don Black, it was written for the song cycle show ''

Tell Me on a Sunday ''Tell Me on a Sunday'' is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. A one-woman show, it has been performed by a number of female singers/actors, most notably Marti Webb and Bernadette Peters. A one-act song cycl ...

'' in 1978. It was sung and released by

Marti Webb Marti Webb (born 13 December 1943) is an English actress and singer, who appeared on stage in '' Evita'', before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show ''Tell Me on a Sunday'' in 1980. This included her biggest hit single, "Take That ...

in 1980, and became a number 3 hit in the UK charts. The song was also popular in Ireland, and made it to number 1.

Song details

The song is about a woman being told of her boyfriend's infidelity. The woman denies this initially, before rebuking her news-bearer (a girlfriend) with the revelation that she "knew before" and had done for some time. She also spends much of the song criticising her friend for rushing to break the "bad news" to her. Despite having been written during the creative process for ''Tell Me on a Sunday'', the song wasn't recorded during the album's principal sessions. Black reminded Lloyd Webber that they had missed a track, then entitled "You Must Be Mistaken". John Mole, the

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

player, improvised a part reminiscent of the arrangement style of

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

, inspiring the rest of the orchestration. The track was recorded in one take, apart from a

double tracking Double tracking or doubling is an audio recording technique in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded performance, usually to produce a stronger or bigger sound than can be obtained with a single voice or instrument. ...

of the orchestra. A briefer 3:02 edit of the song is included on the album, however, a longer 3:29 version was released as the single.

Track listing

* Side A: "Take That Look Off Your Face" * Side B: "Sheldon Bloom"

Revisions

The lyrics were substantially rewritten by

Richard Maltby Jr. Richard Eldridge Maltby Jr. (born October 6, 1937) is an American theatre director and producer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He conceived and directed the only two musical revues to win the Tony Award for Best Musical: '' Ain't Misbehavin (1 ...

for the original Broadway production of ''Song and Dance''. The British productions of the show have always used the lyrics written by Black. Black himself amended the line, "He's doing some deal up in Baltimore now" after realising that Baltimore is south of New York. In subsequent versions, the song's protagonist is said to be "down" in Baltimore. For the 2003 production of ''Tell Me on a Sunday'', the storyline instead placed the action in England prior to an emigration to New York, requiring some further revision of the lyrics to reference London instead.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Gitte Hænning version

A German-language version with lyrics by

Michael Kunze Michael Rolf Kunze (born 9 November 1943, in Prague) is a foremost German musical theater lyricist and librettist. He is best known for the hit musicals '' Elisabeth'' (1992), '' Dance of the Vampires'' (1996), '' Mozart!'' (1999), ''Marie Antoin ...

, "Freu' dich bloß nicht zu früh", by the Danish singer

Gitte Hænning Gitte Hænning (born 29 June 1946) is a Danish singer and film actress, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1950s. She was known primarily monomously (without a surname) in Europe. She moved to Sweden in 1958. Her first hit in Swedish was ...

spent 22 weeks in the German charts in 1980, peaking at no. 10. The song appeared on Gitte's album ''Bleib noch bis zum Sonntag!'', a collection of songs from ''Tell Me on a Sunday'', which won the 1980

Deutscher Schallplattenpreis The Deutscher Schallplattenpreis was a prize that the awarded from 1963 through 1992. Its successor is the Echo Music Prize. References German music awards Awards established in 1963 Awards disestablished in 1992 {{award-stub ...

for best German-language pop album.

References

Songs from musicals Songs with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber Songs with lyrics by Don Black (lyricist) 1978 songs 1980 singles {{1970s-song-stub