| Italic Title: | force |
| Anita O'Day and Billy May Swing Rodgers and Hart | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Anita O'Day |
| Cover: | anitabillyrodg.jpg |
| Released: | 1960 |
| Recorded: | June 6–8, 1960 |
| Genre: | Vocal jazz |
| Length: | 29:33 |
| Label: | Verve |
| Producer: | Norman Granz |
| Prev Title: | Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May |
| Prev Year: | 1959 |
| Next Title: | Waiter, Make Mine Blues |
| Next Year: | 1961 |
Anita O'Day and Billy May Swing Rodgers and Hart is a 1960 studio album by American jazz singer Anita O'Day, arranged by Billy May. O'Day and May had previously recorded an album dedicated to a single composer, Cole Porter, in 1959.
In a review for AllMusic, John Bush wrote: "Broadway fans could understandably fear that O'Day and May would pulverize the waltzing balladry of Rodgers as well as Hart's intricate wordplay. They should have realized that, like the breakneck yet technically perfect performances of bop originators Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, O'Day would miss no subtleties -- and would probably add some of her own -- while she graced these energized versions of American pop classics."
The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings remarked that the album "starts on a wild high... and just goes on from there." They commented: "O'Day is a natch for Hart's clever lyrics and multiple rhymes and there isn't a poor track on it."
Marc Myers, writing for All About Jazz, called the album a "gem," and stated that it "intermingles ferocious band arrangements and tender string charts on some of the American Songbook's most novel tunes. In nearly every case, O'Day's interpretation is bursting with peppery swing and cool seduction... every track on Rodgers and Hart is an stunning knockout."[1]
All music composed by Richard Rodgers, all lyrics by Lorenz Hart.