Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Porter (1891-1964) has been called America’s greatest composer and lyricist stage and screen songwriter. From 1916 to 1958 he composed both the music and lyrics for 36 stage and screen musicals, garnering 10 Academy, Tony, and Grammy award nominations, and winning the first ever Tony Award for best musical and composer for the production of Kiss Me Kate, in 1948. The ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award was established in 2009 to be presented to a promising composer-lyricist. He is a member of the Grammy Hall of Fame and his popular songs, all from musicals, became classic overnight standards through sheet music and recordings, many popularized by Frank Sinatra.
Cole Porter was born into a financially well-to-do family, his grandfather having made millions stemming from the California gold rush. He learned piano at the age of six, quickly developed a penchant to parody popular tunes, composed his first song at the age of ten, and had his early compositions published, financed, and promoted by his mother. In four years at Yale, he composed many zany musicals and was reprimanded several times for his off-color lyrics. At the request of his grandfather, he entered Harvard Law School only to transfer to the Music school at the suggestion of the Dean (only his mother new this at the time). While there he wrote his first Broadway musical See America First (written with his roommate) which was seriously panned by the music world. This caused him to drop out of Harvard, move to France and join the French Foreign Legion at the age of 25, fighting in World War I. After the war, he married the wealthy socialite Linda Lee Thomas and established residences in Paris, Venice, and New York. For the next decade, he continued his composing, living a lavish party-filled life financed by his mother and his wife, and writing many songs for revues and other venues, including two Broadway musicals. His prowess as a songwriter finally blossomed in 1928 when, at the age of 37, he wrote much of the music for the Broadway Musical Paris, which contained his first major hit, “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)”.
During the next three decades, Cole Porter established himself as a great composer-lyricist, equaling his friend and other great American composer-lyricist, Irving Berlin. Porter's lyrics were known for their clever rhymes, and high-brow sophistication, and his melodies for their complex forms and haunting minor keys. He would compose at a piano, painstakingly transcribing notes and lyrics as he developed his songs. He always quoted one of his early teachers, “Words and music must be so inseparably wedded to each other that they are like one.”
Most of Cole Porter's best song standards were composed in the early 1930's and include "You Do Something To Me", "Night and Day", "I Get A Kick Out of You", "Begin the Beguine", "I've Got You Under My Skin", and "It's De-Lovely". In 1937 Cole Porter suffered debilitating injuries to both legs in a horseback riding accident. This left him partially disabled, in much pain, and resulted in dozens of leg operations throughout the rest of his life. After that accident, Porter turned out fewer hit songs and many thought his best period was over. However, in 1948, he wrote his masterpiece, Kiss Me Kate (based on Shakespeare’s Taming Of The Shrew) producing the song "So In Love", and then some of his best work three years in a row for Can-Can (1953), Silk Stockings (1954), and High Society (1955) producing the award-winning song hits "I Love Paris", "All Of you", "It's All Right With Me", and "True Love". His last musical Aladdin (1958) was produced for television, a year after Rodgers and Hammerstein's groundbreaking 1957 TV musical, Cinderella. Cole Porter died 6 years later in 1964.
There were two movies made about Cole Porter’s life, the sanitized and somewhat fictional Night And Day (1945) starring Cary Grant as Cole Porter, and the more realistic but liberally interpretive Delovely (2004) starring Kevin Kline. In the mid 1950s he dictated an autobiography The Cole Porter Story which was published soon after his death in 1964. To this day, invariably, a singer singing a Cole Porter song finds its way into the pop charts top ten.
The 36 Cole Porter musicals are
Cole Porter was born into a financially well-to-do family, his grandfather having made millions stemming from the California gold rush. He learned piano at the age of six, quickly developed a penchant to parody popular tunes, composed his first song at the age of ten, and had his early compositions published, financed, and promoted by his mother. In four years at Yale, he composed many zany musicals and was reprimanded several times for his off-color lyrics. At the request of his grandfather, he entered Harvard Law School only to transfer to the Music school at the suggestion of the Dean (only his mother new this at the time). While there he wrote his first Broadway musical See America First (written with his roommate) which was seriously panned by the music world. This caused him to drop out of Harvard, move to France and join the French Foreign Legion at the age of 25, fighting in World War I. After the war, he married the wealthy socialite Linda Lee Thomas and established residences in Paris, Venice, and New York. For the next decade, he continued his composing, living a lavish party-filled life financed by his mother and his wife, and writing many songs for revues and other venues, including two Broadway musicals. His prowess as a songwriter finally blossomed in 1928 when, at the age of 37, he wrote much of the music for the Broadway Musical Paris, which contained his first major hit, “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)”.
During the next three decades, Cole Porter established himself as a great composer-lyricist, equaling his friend and other great American composer-lyricist, Irving Berlin. Porter's lyrics were known for their clever rhymes, and high-brow sophistication, and his melodies for their complex forms and haunting minor keys. He would compose at a piano, painstakingly transcribing notes and lyrics as he developed his songs. He always quoted one of his early teachers, “Words and music must be so inseparably wedded to each other that they are like one.”
Most of Cole Porter's best song standards were composed in the early 1930's and include "You Do Something To Me", "Night and Day", "I Get A Kick Out of You", "Begin the Beguine", "I've Got You Under My Skin", and "It's De-Lovely". In 1937 Cole Porter suffered debilitating injuries to both legs in a horseback riding accident. This left him partially disabled, in much pain, and resulted in dozens of leg operations throughout the rest of his life. After that accident, Porter turned out fewer hit songs and many thought his best period was over. However, in 1948, he wrote his masterpiece, Kiss Me Kate (based on Shakespeare’s Taming Of The Shrew) producing the song "So In Love", and then some of his best work three years in a row for Can-Can (1953), Silk Stockings (1954), and High Society (1955) producing the award-winning song hits "I Love Paris", "All Of you", "It's All Right With Me", and "True Love". His last musical Aladdin (1958) was produced for television, a year after Rodgers and Hammerstein's groundbreaking 1957 TV musical, Cinderella. Cole Porter died 6 years later in 1964.
There were two movies made about Cole Porter’s life, the sanitized and somewhat fictional Night And Day (1945) starring Cary Grant as Cole Porter, and the more realistic but liberally interpretive Delovely (2004) starring Kevin Kline. In the mid 1950s he dictated an autobiography The Cole Porter Story which was published soon after his death in 1964. To this day, invariably, a singer singing a Cole Porter song finds its way into the pop charts top ten.
The 36 Cole Porter musicals are
- See America First (1916)
- Hitchy-Koo (1919)
- The Greenwich Village Follies (1924)
- Paris (1928)
- Wake Up and Dream (1929)
- Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929)
- The New Yorkers (1930)
- The Gay Divorce' (1932)
- Nymph Errant (1933)
- Anything Goes (1934)
- Jubilee (1935)
- Red, Hot and Blue (1936)
- Born to Dance (1936)
- Rosalie (1937)
- You Never Know (1937)
- Leave It to Me! (1938)
- Broadway Melody Of 1940 (1939)
- Dubarry Was A Lady (1939)
- Panama Hattie (1940)
- You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
- Let's Face It! (1941)
- Something for the Boys (1942)
- Something to Shout About (1942)
- Mexican Hayride (1943)
- Seven Lively Arts (1944)
- Hollywood Canteen (1944)
- Around the World in 80 Days (1946)
- The Pirate (1947)
- Kiss Me, Kate (1948)
- Out Of This World (1950)
- Stage Fright (1950)
- Can-Can (1953)
- Silk Stockings (1954)
- High Society (1955)
- Les Girls (1956)
- Aladdin (1958)