What are your FAVORITE lesser known COLE PORTER songs? — Page 2

There's really only one difference, which side of the Atlantic they were from.

Cole spent so much time on the other side he's practically European anyhow.

The Guthrie in MPLS tried a Cole Porter jukebox version of Roman Holiday that wasn't successful.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1046960#4298035

I might have been able to overlook the show's other shortcomings (or maybe not) if they had chosen better songs. It's like they went out of their way to pick the most unmemorable Porter songs they could and just shove them in wherever. The only ones from the song list that I remember are You Do Something to Me and Night and Day but only because I was familiar with those songs before I saw the show. None of the other songs left any impression on me.

The best-ever revue of obscure Cole Porter was Ben Bagley's 1965 "The Decline and Fall of the Entire World As Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter." It was an intimate revue with a wicked sense of humor that featured all obscure songs plus a 6-minute finale that included one line from each of the more well known Cole Porter songs.

The cast included at various times Carmen Alvarez, Kaye Ballard, William Hickey, Harold Lang, Elmarie Wendel, Tammy Grimes, Edward Earle, Nagle Jackson, Bobo Lewis, Sybil Scotford, Bobby Short, Dody Goodman, and Danny Meehan.

Various versions of the OCR were released, with the following songs, each one a gem:

LP, 1965 [Columbia OL 6410 (mono). OS 2810 (stereo)] (34:47 mins.)

· "I Introduced" [from Hitchy-Koo of 1919] - Harold Lang and Cast (1:52)

· "I'm a Gigolo" [from Wake Up and Dream] - William Hickey (2:31)

· "The Leader of a Big-Time Band" [from Something for the Boys] - Kaye Ballard, Carmen Alvarez, Elmarie Wendel (2:32)

· "I Loved Him (But He Didn't Love Me) [from Wake Up and Dream] - Kaye Ballard (3:05

· "I Happen to Like New York" [from The New Yorkers] - Harold Lang (1:56)

· "What Shall I Do?" [from You Never Know] - Carmen Alvarez and Men (2:02)

· "Tomorrow" [from Leave It To Me] - Kaye Ballard and Cast (3:17)

· "Farming" [from Let's Face It] - Entire Cast (2:47)

· "Give Him the Oo-La-La" [from Du Barry Was a Lady] - Elmarie Wendel 2:18 )

· "Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please" [from Panama Hattie] - Carmen Alvarez (2:28 )

· "Down in the Depths (On the 90th Floor)" [from Red, Hot, and Blue] - Kaye Ballard (2:14)

· "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" [from Leave It To Me] - Kaye Ballard, Carmen Alvarez, Elmarie Wendell (2:01)

· Finale (Medley) - Entire Cast (5:44)

Compact Disc, 1991 [Painted Smiles PSCD-124] (70:52 mins.)

Same selections as above with the addition of these recorded live performances

· "Don't Look At Me That Way" [from Paris] - Carmen Alvarez (2:37)

· "How's Your Romance?" [from Gay Divorce] - Harold Lang, Elmarie Wendel, Carmen Alvarez (1:00)

· "I've Got You On My Mind" [from Gay Divorce] - Harold Lang (2:09)

· "Red, Hot, and Blue" [from Red, Hot, and Blue] - Kaye Ballard and Cast (4:29)

· "Let's Fly Away" [from The New Yorkers] - Entire Cast (3:02)

· "Ridin' High" [from Red, Hot, and Blue] - Kaye Ballard and Cast (3:02)

· "I'm Throwing a Ball Tonight" [from Panama Hattie] - Harold Lang (2:03)

· "I've Still Got My Health" [from Panama Hattie] - Kaye Ballard (2:24)

· Medley from Something for the Boys (4:14)

· "Something for the Boys" - Kaye Ballard, Elmarie Wendel, Carmen Alvarez

· "I'm in Love With a Soldier Boy" - Carmen Alvarez

· "By the Mississinewah" - Kaye Ballard, Elmarie Wendel

· "Girls" [from Mexican Hayride] - Harold Lang (1:39)

These selections from various touring companies:

· "Tale of the Oyster" [from Fifty Million Frenchmen] - Tammy Grimes (2:36)

· "It Ain't Etiquette" [from Du Barry Was a Lady] - Bobby Short, Danny Meehan (2:32)

· "When I Was a Little Cuckoo" [from Seven Lively Arts] - Dody Goodman (2:17)

· "Experiment" [from Nymph Errant] - Bobby Short (2:02)

Here is the original NY Times review:

===

NEW YORK TIMES

March 31, 1965

Theater: Porter's World Revisited

By JOHN S. WILSON

It is quite probable that a highly acclaimed songwriting career could be based entirely on the Cole Porter songs that scarcely anyone but Ben Bagley knows. In any event, Mr. Bagley, an incorrigible collector of forgotten songs from the theater, has built the most tuneful and witty musical in town around what might be considered the unknown Porter.

He calls it "The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter Revisited," a title that all but buries the cast of five performing it on the small stage of the Square East. The "world" under scrutiny is the one that occupied the years between 1929 and 1945, when there can be little doubt that considerable declining and falling went on.

As Mr. Porter saw these years in his songs, however, it was a period in which an examination of the engagements between the sexes continued to be pertinent.

His views of the times were expressed in "How's Your Romance?," "I Loved Him But That Way," "I Loved Him But He Didn't Love Me" and "But in the Morning, No," to mention a few of the full- blooded Porter tunes that might have disappeared with the rest of that world had Mr. Bagley not brought them back to light.

It is one of the fascinations of this revue that, of its 33 songs, there is not one that rates as a dud; and, barring one chorus of "Let's Do It," one would have to be something of a show-tune buff to be familiar with any of them. They come pouring out of Mr. Bagley's cornucopia, presented with airy abandon by five light-hearted singing and dancing satirists who obviously are in full accord with Mr. Porter's views.

Kaye Ballard, batting her eyes, baring her gleaming teeth and dodging encircling dancers, is by turns slinky or raucous. She tells the sad story of an indigestible social-climbing oyster in "Tale of the Oyster," she is Mabel Mercer elegantly declaiming "Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor," Sophie Tucker intoning "Tomorrow" and Beatrice Lillie, stretched out across four stools, and wrapped in a red boa, singing "When I Was a Little Cuckoo."

Carmen Alvarez, an exotic beauty, brings to light a lovely Porter ballad, "What Shall I Do?," takes off her shoes to sing "Find Me a Primitive Man" and, as one of three burlesque queens in "Come On In," mixes bumps with bubble gum. Elmarie Wendel, a versatile pixie; Harold Lang, still handy with both feet and voice, and William Hickey, a man who manages to look studious and baffled at the same time, keep the songs moving.

The attitude of the production is casual and unpretentious. It laughs at itself; it laughs at some of the foibles that Cole Porter overlooked by reminding us that the big news event at the height of the Depression was the discovery that Colleen Moore had one blue eye and one brown eye. It flashes through kaleidoscopic projections of subjects both pertinent and impertinent.

And it relishes Cole Porter. It feasts on his lively and lilting tunes, tunes that are so marked by the Porter dash and swagger that they are immediately recognizable even though one may never have heard them before. And it glories in his lyrics, that steady flow of wit-to-wit combat at which he was an absolute master.

Updated On: 12/3/15 at 10:22 AM

hey pal joey

just got the cd on the decline and fall of the entire world cole porter a few weeks ago

its terrific and loaded with fantastic songs. Thanks for posting the review...very special....

this would have been a fantastic review to see live

Enjoy the CD of his "Fifty Million Frenchmen"

It is simply called Cole Porter's Nymph Errant

Go to Amazon. New copies are pricey. You can get a good used copy for about $8 plus shipping. Hope this helps.

Julie's "Physician" is great. Always wondered who wrote the introductory verse though. STAR! may be an overwrought movie but the musical performances are spectacular.

Always have loved the DECLINE AND FALL album, wonderful performers wonderfully performing greta songs.

newintown, several of the shows you list have been done with the full orchestrations for BBC Radio. I have the recordings of GAY DIVORCE, JUBILEE and DuBARRY. The performances aren't always stellar but its still fun to hear these famous songs as originally presented.

Thanks, Mr. N, good to know. I have the Jubilee recording, but didn't know about the other two. DuBarry without Lahr and Merman must be hard to pull off successfully.

Definitely not lesser known by any stretch of the imagination.

Since several posters asked whether a given song of Cole Porters was considered well known or not,

I thought some members may enjoy a list of songs that Cole did that ARE considered standards, hits and well known songs.

This list is subjective (as lists can be) but you are likely to find most or all these songs on multi-cd cole porter best of collections, and most of these have many many cover versions. For any new to Cole, his songs are often recorded either close to the original musical or piano orchestrations, or re-interpreted in often very different jazz versions in the 1950s (think Ella and Sinatra)

For our Cole savvy posters, please let me know (and post) if there are any egregious omissions from this list of cole standards and popular songs

Cole Porter Standards and Hits

After You, who? (Gay Divorce)

All of You (high society)

Always True to You in My Fashion (kiss me kate)

Another Op'nin', Another Show (kiss me kate)

Anything Goes (anything goes)

Be A Clown (From The Pirate 194

Begin The Beguine (jubilee)

Blow, Gabriel, Blow(anything goes)

Brush Up Your Shakespeare (Kiss me kate)

C'est Magnifique(can can)

Do I Love You?(dubarry was a lady)

Don't Fence Me In (adios argentina)

Easy to Love(born to dance)

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye (From Seven Lively Arts 1944)

Find Me a Primitive Man(50 million frenchmen)

Friendship (anything goes)

I concentrate on you(broadway melody of 1940)

I Get A Kick Out Of You (anything goes)

I Happen to Like New York (From "the New Yorkers"

I Love Paris (can-can)

I Love You (mexican hayride)

I'm So in Love With You (broadway melody of 1940)

In The Still Of The Night (rosalie)

It's De-Lovely (red hot and blue)

I've Got You Under My Skin (born to dance)

Just One Of Those Things (jubilee)

Let's Be Buddies (panama hattie)

Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love) (Paris)

Let's Fly Away(the new yorkers)

Let's Misbehave (Paris)

Let's Talk About Love(Lets face it)

Love for Sale (the new yorkers)

Miss Otis Regrets (hi diddle diddle)

My Heart Belongs To Daddy(leave it to me)

Night and Day (gay diverce)

Red, Hot and Blue (red hot and blue)

So In Love (kiss me kate)

So Near And Yet So Far (you'll never get rich)

Tale of the Oyster(fifty million frenchmen)

Tom, Dick Or Harry (kiss me kate)

Too Darn Hot (kiss me kate)

True Love(high society)

Well, Did You Evah(dubarry was a lady)

What Is This Thing Called Love? (wake up and dream)

Why Shouldn't I (jubilee)

Wunderbar(Kiss me kate)

You Do Something to Me (fifty million frenchmen)

(You'd Be So) Easy to Love (Born to Dance)

You're The Top (anything goes)

You've Got That Thing (fifty million frenchmen)

Updated On: 12/4/15 at 10:39 PM

here is a real bonanza for cole porter fans

Performed by Wilfried Van den Brande & Dirk Baert

Wilfried is a bass/baritone from Belgium and has a phd in musicology on the subject of cole porter. He recorded these over 17 concert dates, with the intention of presenting these songs as closely as possible to how Cole originally wrote them. Some of these songs may work better sung by a women, tenor or chorus, but this is an incredible musical study of an artist unlike any ive ever seen. Wilfried noted over 20 of these are world premiere recordings and for a number of rare cole songs, his are the only recordings i can find on amazon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx7E0i3DCJc&list=PLTfDZkT4YVdT0RVEZr91EGXov2vMcVX7Z

chronological 1-100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEe1wPO2b6U&list=PLTfDZkT4YVdSk3QXycbN7ccuc4GB5CNg4

chronological 101-200

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqeRSzyjtPE&list=PLTfDZkT4YVdT3Bb3obu_T2VqcIRnloMg-

chronological 201-300

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_MpmWZCMsU&list=PLTfDZkT4YVdTAO91IZ_IXvIegC8EysxeB

chronological 301-325

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dnMsAfYTjk&index=3&list=PLTfDZkT4YVdTAO91IZ_IXvIegC8EysxeB

Wilfried has also recorded six cole cds with full orchestrations.