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Cole Porter

Born in Peru, IN

Died in Santa Monica, CA

Cole Porter's Genre:

Vocal, Standards, Show Tunes, Cast Recordings, Stage & Screen, Tin Pan Alley Pop, Show/Musical, Classical

Biography

Cole Porter was born the grandson of wealthy Indiana entrepreneur J.O. Cole and demonstrated musical talent from an early age. Porter entered Yale in 1913, joined the glee club and composed fight songs, some of which are still sung at Yale today. Porter's attempt to make it through Harvard Law School proved disappointing, and by 1916 he was in New York trying out his first Broadway show, which closed after only 15 performances. Porter would soon follow it with yet more failures.

In 1917 Cole Porter move to Paris and lived there for much of the 1920s. Though bisexual, in 1919 Porter married, and in 1923 composed his only large-scale "serious" work, the ballet Within the Quota, a piece that anticipated the symphonic jazz genre. In Paris, Porter met songwriter and producer E. Ray Goetz, brother-in-law of Irving Berlin. The first show they wrote together, Paris (1928), finally broke Porter's long losing streak and provided him with his first hit song, "(Let's Do It) Let's Fall in Love." Porter's next production, Fifty Million Frenchman (1929), was a smash and established his reputation. For this show Porter provided both lyrics and music, which would remain his working method for the rest of his career.

Throughout the 1930s Porter maintained a steady stream of Broadway successes, including The Gay Divorce (1932), Anything Goes (1934), Jubilee (1935), and Red, Hot and Blue (1936). Many of the songs for which Porter is best known were written for these productions, such as "Night and Day," "Begin the Beguine," "You're the Top," and "I Get a Kick Out of You." In 1937 Porter was injured in a riding accident, which resulted in the loss of a leg. For Porter this was a devastating setback and it resulted in his withdrawal from the active social life he had previously known. Nonetheless, Porter enjoyed his greatest Broadway successes afterward, with Du Barry Was a Lady (1939), Panama Hattie (1942), and Kiss Me, Kate (1948), which broke all standing box-office records with an unheard of 1,077 performances. Porter also wrote for motion pictures and lived for many years in Hollywood.

With the death of his wife in 1954 Porter began to slow down, and when he lost his other leg in 1958 Porter stopped writing altogether, living out his remaining years in seclusion. Cole Porter was an enormously prolific songwriter; a published collection of his lyrics contains words for more than 800 songs.

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Cole Porter

This station plays the best music from and music from related artists like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Judy Garland, Stephen Sondheim, Julie Andrews, Bernadette Peters, Rodgers & Hart, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Frank Sinatra and more.

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Cole Porter's Selected Discography (49)

Music From Motion Pictures By Cole Porter - Will You Marry Me Album Cover

Composers on Broadway: Cole Porter

(C)(P) 2006 Universal Music Classics GroupCOMPILATION200611 Songs

Cole Porter Songbook [Definitive]

COLLECTION200839 Songs

The Ultimate Cole Porter, Vol. 3 [Original Cast Recordings]

COLLECTION200324 Songs

Artists Related to Cole Porter (50)

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	Rodgers & Hammerstein	Composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, II (1895-1960) both had extensive careers in Broadway theater music before they scored their first hit together with Oklahoma! in 1943.
	Judy Garland	Singer/actress Judy Garland had a varied career that began in vaudeville and extended into movies, records, radio, television, and personal appearances.
	Stephen Sondheim	Stephen Sondheim was the most highly regarded composer/lyricist for the musical theater in his generation.
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	Bernadette Peters	One of the biggest Broadway stars of her era, Bernadette Peters was widely acclaimed as the finest singing actress to come along since Barbra Streisand.
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	Frank Sinatra	Frank Sinatra was arguably the most important popular music figure of the 20th century, his only real rivals for the title being Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles.
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	Patti LuPone	In 1980, Patti LuPone won her first Tony Award for best actress in a musical for her portrayal of Eva Peron, the ambitious, doomed wife of Argentine dictator Juan Peron, in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Evita.
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	Liza Minnelli	Although singer/actress Liza Minnelli can count Academy Award-winning film roles, Tony Award-winning musical theater performances, Emmy Award-winning television specials, and gold-selling records among her accomplishments, she is primarily a concert performer whose career has been defined by a series of stage acts dating back to her nightclub debut in 1965.
	Hugh Jackman	After vaulting to international fame as the feral antihero Wolverine in a series of feature films inspired by Marvel Comics' best-selling X-Men franchise, actor Hugh Jackman returned to his first love, musical theater, with a Tony Award-winning turn as Broadway icon Peter Allen in the acclaimed The Boy from Oz.
	Kristin Chenoweth	Kristin Chenoweth went from strength to strength around the turn of the 21st century, beginning with an award-winning stage career on Broadway that later expanded into television roles and a recording contract.
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	Original London Cast
	Ella Fitzgerald	"The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time (although some may vote for Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday).
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	Rosemary Clooney	Before the rock & roll revolution, Rosemary Clooney was one of the most popular female singers in America, rising to superstardom during the golden age of adult pop.
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	Bette Midler	Bette Midler counts singing as only one of her talents. Still, she has managed to score a number of major hits in a roller-coaster career as a recording artist.
	Original Cast Recording
	Bing Crosby	Bing Crosby was, without doubt, the most popular and influential media star of the first half of the 20th century.
	Tim Rice	Famed for his enormously successful collaboration with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyricist Tim Rice was born November 10, 1944, in Buckinghamshire, England.
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	The Andrews Sisters	The Andrews Sisters were the most successful female vocal group of the first half of the 20th century in the U.
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	Carol Channing	Carol Channing has worked primarily as a comic stage actress and singer, along with occasional movie and television appearances.
	Louis Armstrong	Louis Armstrong was the first important soloist to emerge in jazz, and he became the most influential musician in the music's history.
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	Audra McDonald	Classically trained soprano Audra McDonald was the most celebrated new singer/actress on Broadway in the 1990s.
	Doris Day	Doris Day has packed four careers into one lifetime, two each in music and movies. The pity is that all most people remember are her movies, from Teacher's Pet (1957) onward, as the quintessential all-American girl, the perpetually virginal screen heroine, cast opposite such icons of masculinity as Clark Gable and, rather ironically, Rock Hudson.
	Dean Martin	Enjoying great success in music, film, television, and the stage, Dean Martin was less an entertainer than an icon, the eternal essence of cool.
	Linda Eder	Linda Eder was perhaps the most popular new interpreter of theatrical songs to emerge during the '90s.
	Hoagy Carmichael	One of the great composers of the American popular song, Hoagy Carmichael differed from most of the others (with the obvious exception of Duke Ellington) in that he was also a fine performer.
	Zero Mostel	b. Samuel Joel Mostel, 28 February 1915, New York City, New York, USA, d. 8 September 1977, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
	Peggy Lee	Peggy Lee's alluring tone, distinctive delivery, breadth of material, and ability to write many of her own songs made her one of the most captivating artists of the vocal era, from her breakthrough on the Benny Goodman hit "Why Don't You Do Right" to her many solo successes, singles including "Mañana," "Lover" and "Fever" that showed her bewitching vocal power, a balance between sultry swing and impeccable musicianship.
	Johnny Mercer	Johnny Mercer's main claim to immortality is his incredible songwriting output, penning the lyrics or music and lyrics to roughly 1,500 songs.
	Duke Ellington	Duke Ellington was the most important composer in the history of jazz as well as being a bandleader who held his large group together continuously for almost 50 years.