Cole Porter, I Get a Kick Out of You!
What do "The Simpsons," Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Barbra Streisand, and "Saturday Night Live" have in common? These and MANY others have all performed or featured music by Cole Porter.
Cole Porter's music has been heard for nearly a century; his showtunes have endured. The 1972 movie What's Up, Doc? has Porter music playing throughout. Even Elvis Costello has covered his music!
Porter's music is witty, playful, fun to sing, and enjoyable to listen to. I invite you to find out more about Cole Porter.
Cole Porter's music has been heard for nearly a century; his showtunes have endured. The 1972 movie What's Up, Doc? has Porter music playing throughout. Even Elvis Costello has covered his music!
Porter's music is witty, playful, fun to sing, and enjoyable to listen to. I invite you to find out more about Cole Porter.
Check out the good stuff!
A table of contents . . .
- A Brief History of Cole Porter
- Some Classic Porter Tunes
- Get Cole Porter's Music for Yourself, or Read More About Him.
- Fun Cole Porter Stuff to Have
- Piero Scaruffi's Incredibly Quick Take on Cole Porter
- Cole Porter on eBay
- Begin the Beguine
- Do You Have a Favorite Cole Porter Tune?
- Do You Have a Favorite Cole Porter Album?
- Please Sign the Cole Porter Guestbook!
- Get a Kick out of Your Own Lens!
A Brief History of Cole Porter
Cole Porter's name derives from the surnames of his parents, Kate Cole and Sam Porter. He was born on June 9, 1891 in the small town Peru, Indiana. He was started studying piano and violin at age 6, choosing the piano, and eventually practicing 2 hours a day. While Cole practiced, he and his mother would parody popular tunes on the piano in order to increase Cole's patience with such long practice sessions. He started composing songs at age 10.Porter graduated from the Worcester Academy and also attended Yale, where he composed more than 300 songs, including six full-scale musical productions. While at Yale, he wrote a number of student songs, including the football fight songs "Bulldog Bulldog" and "Bingo Eli Yale" (aka "Bingo, That's The Lingo!") that are still played at Yale to this day.
After graduating Yale, Porter spent a year Harvard studying law, but was "advised" by a dean to focus on music, so he transferred to the School of Music. Eventually, he abandoned his studies, moved to the Yale club in New York, and began his serious music career.
In 1916, his first full score was performed. The musical, See America First, was a flop and closed after only fifteen performances. He soon began to travel around Europe and got an apartment in Paris. This was the beginning of his life long affection for the city, which he would return to in songs such as "You Don't Know Paree" and "I Love Paris."
During his time abroad Porter contributed to many musicals including Hitchy-Koo and the Greenwich Village Follies. It wasn't, however, until his song "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love" appeared in the 1928 musical Paris, that he had his first big hit.
A contemporary of George Gershwin, Richard Rogers, and Jerome Kern, Porter broke from the simple sentimentality that dominated Tin Pan Alley. His urbane wit and musical complexity won him the affection of the nation. Songs such as "What Is This Thing Called Love," "I Get A Kick Out of You," and "Too Darn Hot," became instant hits and have remained classics. While his name was associated with many of these upbeat show tunes, a more melancholy side could be seen in such wonderful songs as "Miss Otis Regrets" and "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye."
In 1937, Porter had a horseback-riding accident that crushed his legs and left him in chronic pain, largely crippled. Porter underwent more than 30 surgeries on his legs and was in constant pain and depression for the rest of his life.
Cole Porter died of kidney failure at age 73 on October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica, California.
Some Classic Porter Tunes
Ah, the Voodoo He Did So Well . . . .
Get Cole Porter's Music for Yourself, or Read More About Him.
Fun Cole Porter Stuff to Have
Piero Scaruffi's Incredibly Quick Take on Cole Porter
A bit breathless, but concise!
The Broadway genius of the New Deal was Cole Porter, educated at Yale and Harvard, the first New York songwriter who was not afraid to talk about sex, as he proved in Paris (1928) with Let's Do It, Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), with You've Got That Thing and You Do Something to Me and The Gay Divorcee (1932), with Night and Day. His talent was displayed in songs such as An Old Fashioned Garden (1919), I'm In Love Again (1924), What Is This Thing Called Love? (1929) and Love for Sale (1930), that appeared in other Broadway or Hollywood productions. His melodic art reached its zenith with Anything Goes (1934), that boasted I Get A Kick Out Of You, You're The Top, All Through the Night, Anything Goes, Blow Gabriel Blow. It was followed by Jubilee (1935), with Begin the Beguine, Red Hot and Blue (1936), with Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor and Delovely, Leave It To Me (1938), DuBarry Was A Lady (1939), with Did You Ever, Friendship and But In The Morning No, Panama Hattie (1940), with Let's Be Buddies, Let's Face It (1941), with You Irritate Me So, Something For the Boys (1943), with Hey Good Lookin', Mexican Hayride (1944), with Count Your Blessings, and assorted songs such as I've Got You Under My Skin (1936), In The Still of the Night (1937), My Heart Belongs to Daddy (1938), I Love You (1944), Don't Fence Me In (1944), Every Time We Say Goodbye (1944), From This Moment On (1950). His greatest triumph came with the "backstage" musical Kiss Me Kate (1948), based on William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, that included Always True to You in my Fashion, Wunderbar, So In Love With You Am I, Brush Up Your Shakespeare. The quality of his music remained consistently high throughout Can-Can (1953), with I Love Paris, It's All Right With Me and C'est Magnifique, Silk Stockings (1955), a musical adaptation of Ernst Lubitsch's film Ninotchka. The jazzy soundtrack for Charles Walters' film High Society (1956), an adaptation of Philip Barry's play The Philadelphia Story (1939) featuring Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, contained True Love, High Society Calypso, You're Sensational, Now You Has Jazz, Well Did You Evah. The less ambitious soundtrack for George Cukor's film Les Girls (1957) contains Ca C'est l'Amour. His career ended when his legs had to be amputated. Cole Porter on eBay
Begin the Beguine
Do You Have a Favorite Cole Porter Tune?
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Do You Have a Favorite Cole Porter Album?
Classic Musicals Collection - The Cole Porter Gift Set (High Society / Kiss Me Kate / Les Girls / Broadway Melody of 1940 / Silk Stockings)
A compendium of Cole Porter classics. Broadway Mel more...0 points
Please Sign the Cole Porter Guestbook!
I'd love to meet you!
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Tempus
Sep 22, 2010 @ 6:48 am | delete
- Cole Porter - You can only describe him as a musical genius- Well Did You Evah!
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stargazer00
Sep 19, 2010 @ 8:14 pm | delete
- I learned about Cole Porter when our community theater group did Anything Goes. Love that play! It was so much fun.
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a_willow
Oct 7, 2008 @ 3:50 pm | delete
- A little trip down the musical history lane! Great!
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a_willow
Oct 7, 2008 @ 3:50 pm | delete
- A little trip down the musical history lane! Great!
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Bunta
Oct 6, 2008 @ 8:15 pm | delete
- I really appreciated this lens. A very solid background on Cole Porter and I really enjoyed to YouTube clips you included. 5*
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jigsaw2order
Oct 5, 2008 @ 6:22 am | delete
- Cole Polter is a bit before my time but I still love the music.
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lakeerieartists Oct 4, 2008 @ 7:00 pm | delete
- Cole Porter was a great favorite of my grandmother's.
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The_Homeopath
Oct 4, 2008 @ 3:52 pm | delete
- Excellent lens! I got a kick out of it too!
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ByRoy
Oct 4, 2008 @ 2:03 pm | delete
- Great Lens, My father is a big fan of Cole Porter.
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James20
Oct 4, 2008 @ 4:10 am | delete
- Cole Porter, I did not know anything about him. Thanks for this lens. 5*****
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by BeautifulDreamer
Cole Porter's songs were some of my favorites in college when I was studying music. His songs are like friends you can catch up with anytime.
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