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Cole Porter

portrait photo: Cole Porter

Basic Information

Born: Cole Albert Porter June 9, 1891, Peru, Indiana (US)

Died: October 15, 1964 (age 73) Santa Monica, California

Primary songwriting roles: composer and lyricist

Co-writers: Porter wrote both words and music for almost all of his songs. For songs co-written with others, view the DBOPM database. For Co-writing on "Don't Fence Me In," see below.

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Basic Songwiter Information
Overview and Commentary
Music-Video Cabinet
Songs by This Songwriter
in the Cafe Songbook Catalog
of The Great American Songbook
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Master List of Songwriters
Credits

Overview and Commentary:
Cole Porter
(This section is currently in preparation)


Stephen Sondheim.
Stephen Sondheim.
Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 2010.

Stephen Sondheim, in his book Finishing the Hat, focuses on lyrics, primarily his own, but also on those of his renowned early to mid-twentieth century predecessors who wrote theater lyrics of great distinction. One of the songwriters to whose lyrics he devotes a brief essay is Cole Porter (p. 212, hardcover Ed.). About Porter's lyrics, he writes, "Of all the best theater lyricists, Porter is the one whose style is most immediately recognizable." To Sondheim it's possible that Hammerstein's lyrics could be confused with Berlin's, Loesser's with Dorothy Fields' and Ira Gershwin's with Lorenz Hart's, but only Yip Harburg's and Porter's come across distinctly and immediately as their own. Therefore Porter's lyrics being so unique are, ironically, the easiest to imitate.

Sondheim divides and characterizes Porter's lyrics thusly: hislist songs (e.g. "You're the Top") being tours de force of pop culture references; his "salacious songs" filled with double meanings; "the love songs and out-of-love songs (e.g. "In the Still of the Night" and "Down in the Depths") so over the top that they often become camp, yet work because they are truly felt by Porter.

Sondheim comments on Porter's homosexuality by comparing and contrasting him to Hart (the other acknowledged gay songwriter from "the American pantheon") by pointing out that Hart's lyrics concealed his sexual preference while Porter's "paraded" his.

Porter's satires of the lives of the rich and famous work so well, according to Sondheim, because Porter was himself devoted to that crowd. He was the consummate commentator on those in his own circle. Sondheim contrasts Porter to Hammerstein regarding writing about the upper crust. When Sondheim once asked his mentor why he didn't write about the world of sophisticates, Hammerstein replied tersely, "They don't interest me." Therefore, Sondheim explains that on the few occasions, as in Allegro, when Hammerstein tried to depict these sorts of people, he failed. Porter, however, succeeded largely because he himself was part and parcel of his subject. Sondheim quotes lines from "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" not only as an example of Porter's witty depiction of the haute-monde but as a reflection of Porter's own amused (and amusing) attitude toward his own milieu:

While tearing off
A game of golf,
I may
Make a play
For the caddy,
But if I do,
I don't follow through,
'Cause my heart belongs to Daddy.

A great fan of Porter'slist songs, Sondheim comments on those we all know ("Let's Fall in Love," "You're the Top," etc. but also on those that are less well known such as "Let's Not Talk about Love" and "Brush Up You Shakespeare."

Finally, Sondheim is not above being critical of Porter. For example, he calls his use of double entendres sometimes "not much more than "sniggering" and "adolescent," which can take him from the "wickedly sly" ("You gave a new meaning to the leaning tower of Pisa" from Kiss Me Kate to the grossly blunt ("If she fights like a raging boar / I have oft stuck a pig before"), thus illustrating "one of the dangers of camp . . . . It can skid from giddy to vulgar in the space of an entendre."

Sondheim consistently illustrates in this essay, as in his other essays on lyricists in "Finishing the Hat," a barbed tongue of his own as well a critical acuity equally sharp.

book cover: The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter
The Complete Lyrics of
Cole Porter

Robert Kimball, Ed.
(with an Intro. by John Updike),
New York: Alfred A Knoph, 1983
(Da Capo Press paperback Ed., 1992, shown).

The Porter song "Don't Fence Me In" from 1933 (not currently in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook) is one of those few songs not written in its entirety by Porter. In 1933, Porter under contract to Twentieth Century Fox, was working on a never made film with the title Adios, Argentina. The movie's producer, Lou Brock, the Hollywood producer most famous for pairing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their first film together, Flying Down to Rio (also 1933) had come across the phrase "Don't Fence Me In" and thought it might serve a purpose in Adios, Argentina. He asked an amateur songwriter friend of his, Robert Fletcher, to see what he could come up with and when Fletcher wrote a song, Brock convinced him to send it to Porter. After buying the rights from Fletcher, Porter wrote new music and reworked the lyric into the song we know today as "Don't Fence Me In."

As the Hollywood vicissitudes would have it, Adios Argentina was never made. "Don't Fence Me In" sat on the shelf at Harms Music (the song's publisher) for ten years. After Harms was bought by Warner Bros., the song was picked up and put into the 1944 movie Hollywood Canteen where it was sung by Roy Rogers and made into a big hit by Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters. Fletcher never received the writing credit that he had been promised, but Porter, on his own, shared the royalties with him. The Full story of this affair is told by Robert Kimball in The he Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter.)

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Cafe Songbook
Music-Video Cabinet:
Cole Porter
(This section is currently in preparation)



Bing Crosby and The Andrew Sisters perform "Don't Fence Me In" (1944) -- although the recording session took only half an hour, the record achieved longevity reaching # 1 in November, 1944 and remaining in that position for 8 weeks.


album cover: Bing Crosby The Definitive Collection
Bing Crosby: The Definitive Collection
(includes the same track of
"Don't Fence Me In" found on the music-video at left)

Amazon iTunes


"Cole Porter, Thank You for the Music"
(a video tribute to Porter opening with Porter singing "Anything Goes" followed by Judy Garland, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra singing Porter songs and a photo montage of the songwriter)

album cover: The Very Best of Cole Porter
Very Best of Cole Porter
(various artists)

Amazon iTunes


Ella Fitzgerald sings "It's De-lovely" from her
Sings the Cole Porter Songbook album


album cover: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald
Sings The Cole Porter Songbook

Amazon iTunes

Betty Carter sings "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"
David Amram (Arranger & Conductor), Curtis Lundy (Bass), Lewis Nash (Drums), Khalid Moss (Piano), Jerry Dodgion (alto Sax)
(same track as on album at right)


album cover: Night and Day The Cole Porter Songbook
Night and Day:
The Cole Porter Songbook
(various artists)

Amazon iTunes

Anita O'Day sings "From This Moment On"
(same track as on album at right)


album cover: I Get a Kick Out of You The Cole Porter Songbook Vol. 2
I Get A Kick Out Of You: The Cole Porter Songbook, Volume II
(various artists)

Amazon iTunes

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Cole Porter Songs
currently included in the
Cafe Songbook Catalog of
The Great American Songbook
  1. All of You

  2. All Through The Night

  3. Allez-Vous-En

  4. Always True to You in My Fashion

  5. Anything Goes

  6. At Long Last Love

  7. Begin the Beguine

  8. Do I Love You?

  9. Down in the Depths

  10. Dream Dancing
  11. Easy to Love

  12. Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

  13. Find Me A Primitive Man

  14. From This Moment On

  15. Get Out Of Town

  16. I Concentrate on You

  17. I Get a Kick Out of You

  18. I Happen to Like New York

  19. I Love Paris

  20. I Love You

  21. I Love You, Samantha

  22. In the Still of the Night

  23. It's All Right with Me

  24. It's De-lovely

  25. I've Got You under My Skin

  26. Just One of Those Things

  27. The Laziest Gal in Town

  28. Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love

  29. Let's Fly Away

  30. Looking at You

  31. Love for Sale

  32. Miss Otis Regrets

  33. My Heart Belongs to Daddy

  34. Night and Day

  35. Ridin' High

  36. So in Love

  37. Too Darn Hot

  38. What Is This Thing Called Love?

  39. Why Don't We Try Staying Home?

  40. Why Shouldn't I?

  41. You Do Something to Me

  42. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

  43. You're Sensational

  44. You're The Top

Click here for a database of songs written or co-written by
Cole Porter.
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book cover: Cole, edited by Robert Kimball with a biographical essay by Brendan Gill
Robert Kimball and Brendan Gill. Cole. New York: Dell, 1971 (biographical essay on Porter by Gill, lyrics, photos, news clippings, etc. Ed. by Kimball)

 

 

 

book cover: The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter
Robert Kimball, Ed. The Complete Lyrics Of Cole Porter. New York: Alfred A Knoph, 1983 (includes a forward by John Updike) Da Capo Press soft-cover Ed., 1992.

 

 

 


book cover: "Cole Porter" by William McBrien
William McBrien. Cole Porter. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 1998 (reprinted as paper-bound edition by Vantage Books, 2000).

 

 

 


Research Resources:
Cole Porter

Cole Porter research resources on the web (listed alphabetically by web source):
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Cole Porter research resources in print (listed chronologically):
 
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Credits

(Cole Porter page)

 

Credits for Videomakers of videos used on this page:

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Cafe Songbook
Master List
of Great American Songbook Songwriters

Names of songwriters who have written at least one song included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook are listed below.

 

Names of songwriters with two or more song credits in the catalog (with rare exceptions) are linked to their own Cafe Songbook pages, e.g. Fields, Dorothy.

 

Names of songwriters with only one song credit in the catalog are linked to the Cafe Songbook page for that song, on which may be found information about the songwriter or a link to an information source for him or her.

 

Please note: Cafe Songbook pages for songwriters are currently in various stages of development.

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Adams, Lee

Adams, Stanley

Adamson, Harold

Ager, Milton

Ahbez, Eden

Ahlert, Fred

Akst, Harry

Alexander, Van

Allen, Lewis

Allen, Steve

Alter, Louis

Altman, Arthur

Anderson, Maxwell

Andre, Fabian

Arlen, Harold
Arnheim, Gus

Arodin, Sid

Atwood, Hub

Astaire, Fred

Austin, Gene

Ayer, Nat D.

Barbour, Dave

Barnes, Billy

Barris, Harry

Bassman, George

Belle, Barbara

Bennett, Dave

Bergman, Alan and Marilyn

Berlin, Irving

Bernie, Ben

Bernstein, Leonard

Best, William "Pat"

Blackburn, John

Blackwell, Otis (a.k.a. John Davenport)

Blake, Eubie

Blane, Ralph

Blitzstein, Marc

Bloom, Rube

Bock, Jerry

Block, Martin

Boland, Clay

Borne, Hal

Borodin, Alexander

Bowman, Brooks

Boyd, Elisse

Brent, Earl K.

Bricusse, Leslie

Brooks, Harry

Brooks, Shelton

Brown, Les

Brown, Lew

Brown, Nacio Herb

Brown, Seymour

Burke, Joe

Burke, Johnny

Burke, Sonny

Burnett, Ernie

Burns, Ralph

Burwell, Cliff

Bushkin, Joe

 

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Carroll, Harry

Carter, Benny

Casey, Kenneth

Casucci, Leonello

Chaplin, Charlie

Chaplin, Saul

Charlap, Moose

Clare, Sidney

Chase, Newell

Churchill, Frank

Clarke, Grant

Clifford, Gordon

Clinton, Larry

Coates, Carroll

Coleman, Cy

Comden, Betty and Adolph Green

Conley, Larry

Connelly, Reginald

Conrad, Con

Cooley, Eddie

Coots, J. Fred

Cory, George

Coslow, Sam

Creamer, Henry

Crosby, Bing

Cross, Douglas

Daniels, Charles N.
Davenport, John (See Otis Blackwell.)

David, Mack

Davis, Benny

Davis, Jimmy

Dee, Sylvia

De Lange, Eddie

Denniker, Paul

Dennis, Matt

De Paul, Gene

De Rose, Peter

De Sylva, B.G. (Buddy)

DeVries, John

Dietz, Howard

Distel, Sacha

Dixon, Mort

Donaldson, Walter

Dorsey, Jimmy

Dougherty, Doc

Drake, Ervin
Drake, Milton

Dreyer, Dave

Dubin, Al

Duke, Vernon

Edens, Roger

Edwards, Michael

Egan, Raymond B.

Eliscu, Edward

Ellington, Duke

Elman, Ziggy

Engvick, William

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Eyton, Frank

 

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Fields, Dorothy

Fischer, Carl

Fisher, Dan

Fisher, Fred

Fisher, Mark

Fisher, Marvin

Forrest, George

Freed, Arthur

Freed, Ralph

L. E. Freeman

Gaines, Lee

Gallop, Sammy

Gannon, Kim

Garner, Errol

Gaskill, Clarence

Gensler, Lewis E.

George, Don

Gershwin, George

Gershwin, Ira

Gillespie, Haven

Golden, John

Goodman, Benny

Goodwin, Joe

Gordon, Irving

Gordon, Mack

Gorney, Jay

Gorrell, Stuart

Goulding, Edmund

Grainger, Porter

Grand, Murray

Grant, Ian

Gray, Chauncey

Gray, Timothy

Grever, Maria

Grey, Clifford
Green, Adolph and Betty Comden

Green, Bud

Green, Freddie

Green, Johnny

Gross, Walter

Haggart, Bob

Hamilton, Arthur

Hamilton, Nancy

Hamm, Fred

Hammerstein, Arthur

Hammerstein II, Oscar

Hampton, Lionel

Handy, W. C.
Hanighen, Bernie

Hanley, James F.

Harbach, Otto

Harburg, E. Y. (Yip)

Harling, W. Franke

Harline, Leigh

Hart, Lorenz

Henderson, Jimmy

Henderson, Ray

Herbert, Victor

Herman, Woody

Herron, Joel S.

Herzog Jr., Arthur

Heyman, Edward

Heyward, Dubose

Higginbotham, Irene

Higgins, Billy

Hilliard, Bob

Hirsch, Walter

Hodges, Johnny

Holiday, Billie

Holiner, Mann

Hollander, Frederick

Holofcener, Larry

Homer, Ben

Hopper, Hal

Howard, Bart

Hubbell, Raymond

Hupfeld, Herman

 

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Jacobs, Jacob

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James, Freddy (Pseud. for Teddy Powell)

James, Harry

James, Paul

Jenkins, Gordon

Johnson, James P.

Johnston, Arthur

Johnston, Patricia

Jolson, Al

Jones, Isham

Kahal, Irving

Kahn, Gus

Kahn, Roger Wolfe

Kalmar, Bert

Keith, Marilyn
Kent, Walter

Kern, Jerome

Kisco, Charles

Kitchings, Irene

Koehler, Ted

Kosma, Joseph

Kramer, Alex

Kramer, Joan Whitney

Kurtz, Manny

Laine, Frankie

Lamare, Jules (a.k.a Charles N.

Daniels and Neil Moret)

Lane, Burt
Landesman, Fran

Latouche, John

Lawrence, Eddie

Lawrence, Jack

Layton, Turner

Lee, Peggy

Leigh, Carolyn

Leonard, Anita

Lerner, Alan Jay
Leslie, Edgar

Levant, Oscar

Lewis, Morgan

Lewis, Sam M.

Link, Harry

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Livingston, Fud

Livingston, Jay

Livingston, Jerry

Loeb, John Jacob

Loesser, Frank

Loewe, Frederick

Lombardo, Carmen

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Lyman, Abe

 

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Mandel, Frank

Mandel, Johnny

Mann, David

Marks, Gerald

Martin, Hugh

Maschwitz, Eric

Mayer, Henry
McCarey, Leo

McCarthy, Joseph

McCarthy, Jr., Joseph

McHugh, Jimmy

McCoy, Joe

Mellin, Robert

Mercer, Johnny

Merrill, Bob

Mertz, Paul Madeira

Meyer, Joseph

Miles, Dick

Miller, Glenn

Miller, Nathan Ned

Mills, Irving
Mitchell, Sidney D.

Moll, Billy

Monaco, Jimmy

Moret, Neil (aka Charles N. Daniels)

Morey, Larry

Moross, Jerome

Mundy, Jimmy

Muse, Clarence

Myrow, Josef

Nemo, Henry

Newley, Anthony

Nichols, Alberta

Noble, Ray

Norman, Pierre
Norton, George A.

Oakland, Ben

Overstreet, Benton W.

Palmer, Jack

Palmer, Bee

Parish, Mitchell

Parker, Dorothy

Parker, Sol

Parsons, Geoffrey

Perkins, Frank S.

Phillipe-Gérard M(ichel)

Pinkard, Maceo

Porter, Cole

Prima, Louis

Prince, Graham

Prince, Hughie

 

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Raksin, David

Ram, Buck

Ramirez, Roger (Ram)

Rand Lionel

Raye, Don

Razaf, Andy

Reardon, Jack

Redmond, John

Rene, Leon T.

Rene, Otis

Revel, Harry

Reynolds, Ellis

Reynolds, Herbert

Rhodes, Stan

Robin, Leo

Robin, Sid

Robison, Willard

Rodgers, Richard

Romberg, Sigmund

Rome, Harold

Ronell, Ann
Rose, Billy

Rose, Fred

Rose, Vincent

Ruby, Harry

Ruby, Herman

Ruskin, Harry

Russell, Bob

Sampson, Edgar

Sanicola, Henry

Santly, Lester

Savitt, Jay

Secunda, Sholom

Segal Jack
Schertzinger, Victor
Schwandt, Wilbur

Schwartz, Arthur

Scott, Bertha

Shapiro, Ted

Shavers, Charlie

Shay, Larry

Shearing, George

Sherman, Jimmy

Sherwin, Manning

Sigman, Carl

Signorelli, Frank

Silvers, Phil

Simons, Seymour

Sinatra, Frank

Sissle, Noble

Skylar, Sunny

Snyder, Ted

Sondheim, Stephen

Sour, Robert
Spence, Lew

Springer, Philip

Stept, Sam H.

Stock, Larry

Stordahl, Axel

Strachey, Jack

Strayhorn, Billy

Strouse, Charles

Styne, Jule

Suessdorf, Karl

Suesse, Dana

Sullivan, Henry

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Swift, Kay

Symes, Marty

 

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Tormé, Mel

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Trent, Jo

Troop, Bobby

Turk, Roy

Turner, John

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Warren, Harry

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Watson, Johnny

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Wells, Robert

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Whiting, George A.

Wilder, Alec

Wiley, Lee

Wilkinson, Dudley


Williams, Clarence

Williams, Spencer

Wodehouse, P. G.

Wolf, Donald E.

Wolf, Jack

Wolf, Tommy

Wood, Guy B

Woods, Harry M.

Wright, Lawrence

Wright, Robert

Wrubel, Allie

Yellen, Jack

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Young, Joe

Young, Trummy

Young, Victor

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