"When Day Is Done" is an English-language song with an English lyric by Buddy DeSylva, set to music by the Austrian composer Robert Katscher (1894-1942). It is an English adaptation of the German song "Madonna, du bist schöner als der Sonnenschein", which Katscher composed and wrote in 1924 for the Vienna revue "Küsse um Mitternacht", staged at the Wiener Kammerspiele and written with Karl Farkas. The German original is a slow song, and the Kammersänger C. Richard Tauber recorded it in November 1924, with the record released in 1925. The English version is dated 1926. The earliest recording of the English song is by Harry Pollock & His Club Maurice Diamonds, with a vocal chorus by Arthur Hall, made on 1 October 1926 and issued as a single titled "Half a Moon". Other early recordings came from Fred Rich, Nat Shilkret, Jack Hylton and Paul Whiteman, the last in 1927. Later versions by Perry Como, Bobby Darin, Chet Atkins, Coleman Hawkins, Dennis Day and Bob Wills include settings in jazz, swing and gypsy jazz styles.
