Born this day in history, June 9, 1891, today would be Cole Porter's 112th birthday.
I'm proud to claim Porter for Indiana. He's our top Hoosier hero in the Broadway era.
Funny thing with Porter: From Rimler's classic Not Fade Away analysis, ole king Cole was the main one guy amongst the top Broadway composers who was not actually Jewish. Yet he apparently sought out specifically to sound Jewish, to master and incorporate old Jewish musical styles.
Whatever music tradition you want to credit, he wrote Kiss Me Kate, and many of the top classic songs of the era, including:
Anything Goes
Under My Skin
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
I Get a Kick Out of You
Begin the Beguine
Night and Day
Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)
Brush Up Your Shakespeare
Always True to You in My Fashion
Let's Misbehave
Love for Sale
It's De-Lovely
Miss Otis Regrets
Don't Fence Me In
Among scads of recordings, Porter was the subject of a collection of rock era singers covering his songs in the hit 1990 Red, Hot and Blue AIDS benefit album. It's cool that people were taking an interest, but I never dug it. Even with two contributions by my beloved Sinead O'Connor, this wasn't cutting it.
Better to stick with more classic style recordings. Perhaps the Ella Fitzgerald album, for one. Also, a couple of Porter songs were at the heart of Sinatra's classic Songs for Swingin' Lovers. If you don't own that album you should. It also makes a perfect wedding gift. Pretty much every interpretation on the album could be considered the definitive one for the song, definitely including particularly his take on "Anything Goes".
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