Cole Porter

Artist ∙ Jazz

Responsible for such classics as "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," and "Anything Goes," Cole Porter is synonymous with both the American songbook and Broadway musical tradition. A prolific composer and lyricist, Porter wrote numerous musicals throughout the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, including CAN-CAN and KISS ME, KATE. His songs represent the epitome of pop wit and sophistication, and have been performed by artists from Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee to the Jungle Brothers and Paul Westerberg.

April 6, 2011 at PDT
Anything Goes (2011 New Broadway Cast Recording)
19 Tracks
December 31, 1955 at GMT-8
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook (Expanded Edition)
Ella Fitzgerald, a star of Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series since 1949, seemed to Granz an ideal fit for his new Verve label, so he signed her in 1955, luring her away from Decca in something of a coup. Right away the plan was to position her as a singer with a command of the American pop songbook, on par with a figure like Sinatra. Jazz connoisseurs admired her for her solid swing feel and breakneck scatting, her ability to go head-to-head onstage with the era's great soloists. Granz knew she possessed greater versatility, and with the Verve songbooks he sought to connect her to the widest possible audience.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook was the first of what would be eight albums in this vein, each devoted to a single composer. Porter would be followed by Rodgers & Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and finally Johnny Mercer in 1964. Most of these writers, save for Porter and Berlin, had lyricist partners (Mercer was primarily known as a lyricist, not a composer). So the Porter songbook attests not only to his timeless melodies and creative, often elongated song forms (“In the Still of the Night,” “Begin the Beguine”), but also to his peerless wordplay and wit (“Too Darn Hot,” “You’re the Top,” “Always True to You in My Fashion”). Fitzgerald nails the delivery and the fun in all of it, but also captures the tragedy and pervasive unease of a song like “Miss Otis Regrets” (played in duet with session pianist Paul Smith).

Will Friedwald, in A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, argues that the first two Ella songbooks, Porter and Rodgers & Hart, suffer in comparison to those arranged by Nelson Riddle. Still, Buddy Bregman’s Porter arrangements have their charm; the band features Bud Shank, Barney Kessel, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Maynard Ferguson, and other top talent. There was a bigger-picture consideration as well, which Friedwald notes: “As the album format became more and more important to the music business, Fitzgerald was perfectly poised to assume her position as queen of the long-playing disc.” It was Norman Granz, Fitzgerald’s manager long after he sold Verve to MGM in 1960, who helped put her there.
35 Tracks
December 31, 1955 at GMT-8
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book
Ella Fitzgerald, a star of Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series since 1949, seemed to Granz an ideal fit for his new Verve label, so he signed her in 1955, luring her away from Decca in something of a coup. Right away the plan was to position her as a singer with a command of the American pop songbook, on par with a figure like Sinatra. Jazz connoisseurs admired her for her solid swing feel and breakneck scatting, her ability to go head-to-head onstage with the era's great soloists. Granz knew she possessed greater versatility, and with the Verve songbooks he sought to connect her to the widest possible audience.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook was the first of what would be eight albums in this vein, each devoted to a single composer. Porter would be followed by Rodgers & Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and finally Johnny Mercer in 1964. Most of these writers, save for Porter and Berlin, had lyricist partners (Mercer was primarily known as a lyricist, not a composer). So the Porter songbook attests not only to his timeless melodies and creative, often elongated song forms (“In the Still of the Night,” “Begin the Beguine”), but also to his peerless wordplay and wit (“Too Darn Hot,” “You’re the Top,” “Always True to You in My Fashion”). Fitzgerald nails the delivery and the fun in all of it, but also captures the tragedy and pervasive unease of a song like “Miss Otis Regrets” (played in duet with session pianist Paul Smith).

Will Friedwald, in A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, argues that the first two Ella songbooks, Porter and Rodgers & Hart, suffer in comparison to those arranged by Nelson Riddle. Still, Buddy Bregman’s Porter arrangements have their charm; the band features Bud Shank, Barney Kessel, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Maynard Ferguson, and other top talent. There was a bigger-picture consideration as well, which Friedwald notes: “As the album format became more and more important to the music business, Fitzgerald was perfectly poised to assume her position as queen of the long-playing disc.” It was Norman Granz, Fitzgerald’s manager long after he sold Verve to MGM in 1960, who helped put her there.
32 Tracks
December 31, 1958 at GMT-8
Oscar Peterson Plays The Cole Porter Song Book
12 Tracks
November 17, 1999 at PST
Kiss Me, Kate! (1999 Broadway Revival Cast)
20 Tracks
June 6, 2019 at PDT
Kiss Me, Kate! (2019 Broadway Cast Recording)
18 Tracks
May 14, 1962 at GMT-7
Anything Goes (1962 Broadway Revival Cast)
13 Tracks
October 18, 1987 at PDT
Anything Goes (1987 New Broadway Cast Recording)
18 Tracks
September 28, 1992 at PDT
The Complete Cole Porter Songbooks
48 Tracks
November 25, 1953 at GMT-8
Kiss Me, Kate! (Original 1953 Motion Picture Soundtrack)
27 Tracks
September 28, 1990 at PDT
The Cole Porter Songbook: Night and Day
17 Tracks
February 12, 2007 at PST
The Very Best of The Cole Porter Songbook
12 Tracks
December 31, 1948 at GMT-7
Kiss Me, Kate! (Original 1949 Broadway Cast Recording)
19 Tracks
June 30, 1993 at PDT
Sinatra Sings Cole Porter
18 Tracks
November 17, 1993 at PST
Cole Porter: A Centennial Celebration
20 Tracks
March 4, 1982 at PST
Evil Under the Sun (Music from the Original Soundtrack)
17 Tracks
April 7, 1953 at GMT-8
Oscar Peterson Plays Cole Porter
12 Tracks
December 31, 1977 at PST
Dream Dancing
15 Tracks
December 31, 1981 at PST
Sings the Music of Cole Porter
10 Tracks
December 31, 1991 at PST
Anything Goes (2003 London Cast Recording)
23 Tracks
June 10, 1990 at PDT
Sings Cole Porter
13 Tracks
September 30, 1965 at GMT-7
Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter
17 Tracks
December 31, 1953 at GMT-8
Cole Sings Porter: Rare and Unreleased Songs from "Can-Can" and "Jubilee"
22 Tracks
October 21, 1991 at PDT
The Cole Porter Songbook, Volume II: I Get A Kick Out of You
17 Tracks
October 5, 2017 at PDT
Cole Porter's You Never Know (World Premiere Cast Recording)
17 Tracks

Cole Porter

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