Fred Astaire in "Carefree" (1938). He first presented Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight" in "Swing Time" (1936); the Gershwins' "They Can't Take That Away from Me" in "Shall We Dance" (1937), "A Foggy Day" and "Nice Work if You Can Get it" in "A Damsel in Distress" (1937); Johnny Mercer's "One for My Baby" from "The Sky's the Limit" (1943) and "Something's Gotta Give" from "Daddy Long Legs" (1955); and Harry Warren and Arthur Freed's "This Heart of Mine" from "Ziegfeld Follies" (1946). Astaire also co-introduced a number of song classics via song duets with his partners. For example, with
Fred Astaire to continually innovate. His first post-Ginger dance partner was the redoubtable Eleanor Powell—considered the finest female tap-dancer of her generation—in "Broadway Melody of 1940", in which they performed a celebrated extended dance routine to Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine." In his autobiography "Steps in Time", Astaire remarked, "She 'put 'em down like a man,' no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself." He played alongside Bing Crosby in "Holiday Inn" (1942) and later "Blue Skies" (1946) but, in spite of the enormous financial success of both, was reportedly dissatisfied with roles