PLEASE NOTE : BECAUSE OF THE LARGE AMOUNT OF "YOUTUBE" SCREENS ON THIS PAGE, THE IMAGES WITHIN EACH SCREEN MIGHT TAKE A SHORT WHILE TO LOAD UP. PATIENCE IS REQUIRED.

Words & Music by Cole Porter

Meher Baba stated that this was his favourite song. So much so, when his body was interred into his crypt / tomb on January 31st 1969, this song was played 7 times, one after the other. The version played was by Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson. Over the years Baba had heard many versions of this song including the version by Artie Shaw.

LESLIE "HUTCH" HUTCHINSON

Check-out Kendra Crossen's wonderful web site which also covers this song

The next day, May 18th, Filis and Adele were sent back to New York. Their first separation from Baba was as painful as their first meeting was joyous. Filis noted, "You feel like Adam and Eve leaving Paradise." But at the Myrtle Beach bus station, as if to console her, since she was feeling sad, the juke box began playing Baba's favorite song by Cole Porter, "Begin the Beguine!"

NIGHT AND DAY ( 1946 )

Sung by Carlos Ramirez.

Cole Porter was played by Cary Grant in the film.

The dancers were ; 

• Estelle Sloan as Specialty Dancer
• George Zoritch as Specialty Dancer
• Adam Di Gatano as Specialty Dancer
• Jane Di Gatano as Specialty Dancer
• Milada Mladova as Specialty Dancer

His favorite song "Begin the Beguine" was played on a phonograph. Baba remarked the song had an eternal meaning. He beat the rhythm with his fingers on the arm of his chair. "I always hear this record at Nariman's home when I go to Bombay," he commented.

BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940 ( FILM )

Sung by Carmen D'Antonio (dubbed by Lois Hodnott) and The Music Maids
Danced by Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell

Charles Purdom and others narrated some humorous stories, and after it ended, Baba commented, "Today's performance is one of the few things I shall miss in my next incarnation!" He embraced all the performers and helpers. Tears were streaming down the face of some of the men as they knelt before Baba to receive their embrace, they were so happy.

Henry Kashouty was playing the trombone during the "Begin the Beguine" song, and just as his solo part was coming, Baba's face took on a strange deep expression. It looked as immobile as granite, as if the total concern for all of humanity was etched in his features. The entire band had stopped, and Henry wondered if he, too, should stop, as it was obvious Baba was doing his inner working. There was pin-drop silence in the room, but Henry went on and finished the tune.

When he came for his embrace, Baba imitated his trombone playing and gestured, "Excellent" and then kissed Henry on both cheeks, indicating he had made the proper decision by continuing to play.

Lord Meher Volume 15, Page 5439

Said Osio - visuals

2015

1st song :  Cathy Riley & Jeff Wolverton - "Oh Moon"

2nd song : Los Violentes - "Begin the Beguine"

Borrah Minevitch & his Harmonica School ( 1942 )

Played by Borrah Minevitch and his Rascals. 

Dancer unknown.

One woman, who was in charge of the record player, asked Baba, "Do you want to hear 'Indian Love Call?' "

"Any call!" Baba jested.

"Or, do you want to go out for some other call?" The song "Begin the Beguine" was played (a jet plane flying overhead accented the end of the song) and then the song "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands."

CHICK HENDERSON with JOE LOSS & HIS ORCHESTRA

( 1939 )

Sung by Chick Henderson

It was May 23rd. As usual, Baba came into the living room of Guruprasad at 7:00 A.M. Before going into the hall he was busy attending to correspondence and other day-to-day details of his work. At 8:30 A.M. everyone was summoned inside, including Marvin and Jeannie Campen. They had flown to India from Switzerland, and Marvin placed a music box, shaped like a Swiss chalet, at Baba's feet. When opened, it played Baba's favorite tune "Begin the Beguine," and Baba listened to it happily.

XAVIER CUGAT  ( 1953 )

Several photographs of Baba, the mandali and ashram were taken by him and Padri. He also brought a tape recorder, which Baba would refer to as "Harry's baby," as he always kept it by his side. Baba would often ask Kenmore to recite the Parvardigar Prayer before him in Mandali Hall, which he would do in a booming voice. He was also fond of singing "Begin the Beguine," "Swanee" and other songs that Baba liked. At times, Baba would take Kenmore and the mandali to the main house to listen to records in Hindi and English.

Lord Meher Volume 16, Page 5636

ARTIE SHAW & HIS ORCHESTRA

January 31, 1969 - Meherazad

Eruch recalled that Baba had instructed the mandali several times: "Wherever I may drop my body, bring it to Meherabad and place it in the Tomb." Eruch also remembered that Baba had told him to play the record of the song "Begin the Beguine" when he dropped his body.

Lord Meher Volume 20, Page 6718

PETE TOWNSHEND

From the album "Another Scoop"

January 31, 1969 - Meherazad

Meanwhile, Donkin left to bring an ambulance, and Adi went back to town to send the telegram to all parts of India and the world. While the record "Begin the Beguine" was being played several times, Donkin arrived with the ambulance. Eruch told Mani to get her movie camera and take a film. 

Baba's body was lifted on a stretcher, and Eruch, Bhau and Aloba brought it from his room to Mandali Hall, where it was placed on Baba's aluminum bed. There, all of the mandali and the servants took Baba's darshan. Baba was physically bidding farewell to Meherazad.

VARIOS & VIDA

January 31, 1969 - Upper Meherabad

The ambulance stopped opposite Meher Baba's tin seclusion cabin, and the stretcher was lifted from it and placed inside the cabin just opposite the door. (The ambulance had been sent by Dr. Brieseman from Booth Hospital. Afterwards, the ambulance itself died; it went out of commission and had to be replaced. The trip it made to Meherabad was its last. The stretcher which carried Baba's body is still preserved in his tin seclusion cabin on the hill.)

Mani brought the record player and played "Begin the Beguine" inside the cabin.

DIONNE WARWICK

in concert in Brazil - 1993

January 31, 1969 - Upper Meherabad ( Tomb )

The ice surrounded Baba on all sides and yet did not touch his body. A flower garland was put around Baba's head, and with his closed eyelids, he appeared, at first glance, to be sleeping peacefully. It was starting to get dark so a petromax lantern was hung in the Tomb. Strains of "Begin the Beguine" wafted from inside his final resting place.

MARIO FRANGOULIS

Live in Moscow

VIC DAMONE

BEEGIE ADAIR TRIO  ( 2006 )

SAMMY DAVIS JR.

There are 2 versions sung, the first in 1957 and then 1962.

DOC  SEVERINSEN

HASTINGS COLLEGE CHOIR

Nebraska, USA

JO STAFFORD  ( 1950 )

MICHAEL BUBLE  ( 2007 )

FRANK SINATRA

PEE WEE HUNT & HIS ORCHESTRA  ( 1958 )

JULIO IGLESIAS  ( 1981 )

ELLA FITZGERALD

with BUDDY BREGMAN & HIS ORCHESTRA  ( 1956 )

BING CROSBY

ANDREW SISTERS

ENOCH LIGHT ORCHESTRA

CATERINA VALENTE

ROBERT de KERS

AND THE VIBRA SWINGERS ( BRUSSELS )

PERRY COMO

DEANNE DURBIN

PAUL MAURIAT

THE FLAMINGOS

GAL COSTA

DJANGO REINHARDT & STEPHANE GRAPELLI

with the Quintet of the Hot Club of France

LIBERACE

THE LIMELITERS

PEDRINHO MATTAR

TUXEDO JUNCTION

CHET ATKINS

DICK CONTINO

LOS INDIOS TABAJARAS

41

Not to be confused with the R.E.M. song "Begin the Begin" or the television episode "Begin the Begin" (Grey's Anatomy).

"Begin the Beguine" is a song written by Cole Porter (1891–1964). Porter composed the song at the piano in the bar of the Ritz Hotel in Paris^{[citation needed]}. In October 1935, it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee produced at the Imperial Theatre in New York City.

Music

The beguine music and dance form, a slow, close couples' dance, comes from the Caribbean, especially Martinique and Guadeloupe, where in the local Creole language the name means "White lady". It is a combination of French ballroom dance and Latin folk dance, which became popular in Paris and spread further abroad in the 1940s, largely due to the influence of the Porter song.

Based on the title dance, the song is notable for its 108-measure length, departing drastically from the conventional thirty-two-bar form. Where a typical "standard" popular song of its time was written in a fairly strict 32-measure form consisting of two or three eight-measure subjects generally arranged in the form A-A-B-A or A-B-A-C, "Begin the Beguine" employs the form A-A-B-A-C1-C2 with each phrase being sixteen measures in length rather than the usual eight. The final "C2" section is stretched beyond its 16 measures an additional twelve bars for a total of 28 measures, with the twelve additional measures providing a sense of finality to the long form.

The slight differences in each of the "A" sections, along with the song's long phrases and final elongated "C2" section at the end, give it unique character and complexity. The fact that the song's individual parts hold up melodically and harmonically over such a long form also attests to Porter's talent and ability as a songwriter.

Porter reportedly once said of the song, "I can never remember it — if I want to play I need to see the music in front of me!"^{[citation needed]} Alec Wilder described it in his book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950 as "a maverick, an unprecedented experiment and one which, to this day, after hearing it hundreds of times, I cannot sing or whistle or play from start to finish without the printed music".^[1]

Artie Shaw version

At first, the song gained little popularity, perhaps because of its length and unconventional form (108 bars). Josephine Baker danced to it in her return to America in the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies, but neither she nor the song were successful. Two years later, however, bandleader Artie Shaw recorded an arrangement of the song, an extended swing orchestra version, in collaboration with his right-hand arranger and orchestrator Jerry Gray.

After signing a new recording contract with RCA Victor records in the summer of 1938, Shaw called up "Beguine" to be the first of six tunes he would record at his initial recording session on July 24. Until then Shaw's band had been having a tough time finding an identity and maintaining its existence without having had any popular hits of significance; his previous recording contract with Brunswick had lapsed at the end of 1937 without being renewed.

RCA's pessimism with the whole idea of recording the long tune "that nobody could remember from beginning to end anyway" sealed its fate as being released on the "B" side of the record it appeared on ("Artie Shaw and His Orchestra" issued by Bluebird Records as catalog number B-7746 B). Shaw's persistence paid off, though, when "Begin the Beguine" became a best-selling record in 1938, peaking at #3. Despite Shaw's earlier obscurity, the release of his recording of "Beguine" skyrocketed Shaw and his band to fame and popularity. The recording, indeed, became one of the most famous and popular anthems of the entire Swing Era.

Subsequent re-releases by RCA Victor (catalog number 20-1551^[2]) and other releases on LPs, tapes and CDs have kept the recording readily available continuously ever since its initial release.

Later on, when composer Cole Porter met the by-then famous bandleader, he jokingly remarked to Shaw, "I'm glad to finally meet my collaborator." Shaw reportedly replied, "Does this mean I get half of the royalties?"^{[citation needed]}

Later popularity

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dance to "Begin the Beguine" in Broadway Melody of 1940

After Shaw introduced the song to dance halls, MGM brought out the musical film Broadway Melody of 1940 in which Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell danced "Begin the Beguine". In short order, all the major big bands recorded it, including Harry James, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, often as an instrumental as in the film. As a vocal song, it also became a pop standard, beginning with Cole Porter and Tony Martin; new interpretations are often still measured against renditions by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, and even Elvis Presley did an adaptation of his own. "Begin the Beguine" became such a classic during the war years that the painter Max Beckmann adopted the title for a painting in 1946 (now at University of Michigan Museum of Art).

Releases by notable artists

• Tony Martin^[3] recorded Begin the Beguine at least twice: on March 14, 1939 for Decca Records (catalog numbers 2375a^[4] and later 25018^[5] in 78 rpm, 9-25018 in 45 rpm) and for RCA Victor Records in the late 1940s (catalog number 20-2814,^[6] 47-3228).
• Leslie Hutchinson recorded a version in the 1930s. In the 1930s, this recording was given to the Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba, who later asked that it be played seven times at his tomb when his body was laid to rest, which occurred a week after his death on 31 January 1969.
• Eddie Heywood and his orchestra recorded a single version in 1944.
• Alys Robi recorded a 78 rpm version in 1944.
• The Andrews Sisters recorded a single version in collaboration with Glenn Miller and his orchestra.
• Jo Stafford recorded a version in the early 1950s.
• Mario Lanza recorded a successful version in the late 1950s.
• Frank Sinatra recorded a version, re-released on The Columbia Years (1943-1952).
• Charlie Parker's album "The Cole Porter Songbook" (1950–54; re-released on CD in 1991) contains one of the most influential versions.
• Caterina Valente recorded a version on her 1956 album The Hi-Fi Nightingale.
• Liberace recorded and performed a spirited version with his brother, George Liberace, on his live television show in 1956.
• Ella Fitzgerald recorded a version for the Cole Porter Songbook records on Verve, 1956
• Louis Prima and Keely Smith recorded a single version in 1961.
• Elvis Presley recorded his own song in 1962, based on the Cole Porter song, entitled "You'll Be Gone". Presley co-wrote the original aspects of the song with his bodyguard Red West and assistant Charlie Hodge.
• Andy Williams recorded a version for his 1964 album The Great Songs from My Fair Lady and other Broadway Hits.
• Tom Jones recorded a version in 1966, for his album From the Heart.
• Django Reinhardt recorded several times a gipsy jazz version of Begin the Beguine.
• Les Paul recorded a jazz guitar version of the song.
• Juan García Esquivel recorded a lounge-music version of the tune.
• Pete Townshend recorded a version in 1970 for his album Happy Birthday.
• Johnny Mathis recorded an eight minute long disco version in 1979, as well as a samba rendition.
• Sammy Davis, Jr. recorded a version in 1979 for his album Hearin' is Believin'.
• Julio Iglesias recorded a version in 1981, which reached number 1 in the UK.
• Richard Clayderman's album Music of love (1984) includes this song.
• Tuck Andress recorded a version in 1990, for his album Reckless Precision.
• Thomas Hampson recorded a version on his Cole Porter album, "Night and Day" for EMI (1991). This features the original arrangements by Robert Russell Bennett, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by John McGlinn.
• Michael Nesmith recorded a version in 1992, for his solo album Tropical Campfires.
• Pearl Django recorded a gypsy jazz version in 2000, for the album Avalon.
• Sheryl Crow recorded a version for the 2004 Porter Biopic, "De-lovely".

This is played in the Hollywood productions Broadway Melody Of 1940 and Night And Day (1946), a mostly fictional biopic of composer Porter

The following address lines represent another version of Begin the Beguine.

To listen to them, copy a line and paste it into your search engine's address bar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9CZ9PjRfyw&feature=related

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102

Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike most successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote both the lyrics and the music for his songs.

After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 30s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, Kiss Me, Kate.

Porter's other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes and Can-Can, and his numerous hit songs include "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!" and "I've Got You Under My Skin". He also composed scores for films from the 1930s to the 1950s. He was noted for his sophisticated, suggestive lyrics, clever rhymes and complex forms.

Life and career

Early years

Farmhouse at Westleigh Farms

Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, the only child of a wealthy Baptist family.^[1] His father, Samuel Fenwick Porter, was a druggist by trade;^[2] his mother, Kate, was the indulged daughter of James Omar "J. O." Cole, "the richest man in Indiana", a coal and timber speculator who dominated the family.^[3] J.O. built the couple a home at his Peru-area property, known as Westleigh Farms.^[4] After high school, Porter returned to the property only for occasional visits.^[5] Kate started Porter in musical training at an early age. He learned the violin at age six, the piano at eight and wrote his first operetta (with help from his mother) at 10. She falsified his recorded birth year, changing it from 1891 to 1893 to make him appear more precocious.^[3] His father, who was a shy and unassertive man, played a lesser role in Porter’s upbringing, although as an amateur poet he may have influenced his son’s gifts for rhyme and meter.^[2]

Porter as a Yale College student

J. O. Cole wanted his grandson to become a lawyer,^[3] and with that career in mind, he sent him to Worcester Academy in 1905. He became class valedictorian^[3] and was rewarded by his grandfather with a tour of France, Switzerland and Germany.^[6] After this he attended Yale University beginning in 1909, where he was a member of Scroll and Key and Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter) and sang both in the Yale Glee Club, of which he was elected president his senior year, and as an original member of the Whiffenpoofs. 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 today.^[7] Porter wrote 300 songs while at Yale.^[3] After graduating from Yale, Porter studied at Harvard Law School in 1913 (where he roomed with Dean Acheson).^[3] He soon felt that he was not destined to be a lawyer, and, at the suggestion of the dean of the law school, Porter switched to Harvard's music faculty, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Pietro Yon.^[2] Kate Porter did not object to this move, but it was kept secret from J. O. Cole.^[3]

In 1915, Porter's first song on Broadway, "Esmeralda", appeared in the revue Hands Up. The quick success was immediately followed by failure: his first Broadway production, in 1916, See America First, a "patriotic comic opera" modeled on Gilbert and Sullivan, with a book by T. Lawrason Riggs, was a flop, closing after two weeks.^[8]

Paris and marriage

In 1917, the year in which the U.S. entered World War I, Porter moved to Paris. He distributed relief supplies for three months, but the extent of his other war work is unclear. Some writers have been skeptical about Porter's claim to have served in the French Foreign Legion,^[3][8] although the Legion itself lists Porter as one of its soldiers^[9] and displays his portrait at its museum in Aubagne.^[10] By some accounts, he served in North Africa and was transferred to the French Officers School at Fontainebleau, teaching gunnery to American soldiers.^[11] An obituary notice in The New York Times said that, while in the Legion, "he had a specially constructed portable piano made for him so that he could carry it on his back and entertain the troops in their bivouacs."^[12] Another account, given by Porter, is that he joined the recruiting department of the American Aviation Headquarters, but, according to his biographer Stephen Citron, there is no record of his joining this or any other branch of the forces.^[13]

Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris, where he entertained lavishly. His parties were extravagant and scandalous, with "much gay and bisexual activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians, and a large surplus of recreational drugs".^[3] In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich, Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcée eight years his senior,^[1] whom he married the following year. She was in no doubt about Porter's homosexuality,^[14] but it was mutually advantageous for them to marry: for Linda it offered continued social status and a partner who was the antithesis of her abusive first husband; for Porter it brought a respectable heterosexual front in an era when homosexuality was not publicly acknowledged. They were, moreover, genuinely devoted to each other and remained married from December 19, 1919 until Linda's death in 1954.^[3] Linda remained protective of her social position, and believing that classical music might be a more prestigious outlet than Broadway for her husband's talents, she tried to use her connections to find him suitable teachers, including Igor Stravinsky, but was unsuccessful. Finally, Porter enrolled at the Schola Cantorum in Paris where he studied orchestration and counterpoint with Vincent d'Indy.^[2] Meanwhile, Porter's first big hit was the song "Old-Fashioned Garden" from the revue Hitchy-Koo in 1919.^[1] In 1920, he contributed the music of several songs to the musical A Night Out.^[15]

Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, leased by Porter in the 1920s

Marriage did not diminish Porter's taste for extravagant luxury. The Porter home on the rue Monsieur near Les Invalides was a palatial house with platinum wallpaper and chairs upholstered in zebra skin.^[12] In 1923, Porter came into an inheritance from his grandfather, and the Porters began living in rented palaces in Venice. He once hired the entire Ballets Russes to entertain his house guests, and for a party at Ca' Rezzonico, which he rented for $4,000 a month ($55,000 in current value), he hired 50 gondoliers to act as footmen and had a troupe of tight-rope walkers perform in a blaze of lights.^[12]

Porter received few commissions for songs in the years immediately after his marriage. He had the occasional number interpolated into other writers' revues in England and the U.S. For a C. B. Cochran show in 1921, he had two successes with the comedy numbers "The Blue Boy Blues" and "Olga, Come Back to the Volga".^[16] In 1923, in collaboration with Gerald Murphy, he composed a short ballet, originally titled Landed and then Within the Quota, satirically depicting the adventures of an immigrant to America who becomes a film star.^[17] The work, written for the Swedish Ballet company, lasts about 16 minutes. It was orchestrated by Charles Koechlin and shared the same opening night as Milhaud's La création du monde.^[18] Porter's work was one of the earliest symphonic jazz-based compositions, predating George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by four months, and well received by both French and American reviewers after its premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in October 1923.^[18][19] After a successful New York performance the following month, the Swedish Ballet company toured the work in the U.S., performing it 69 times. A year later the company disbanded, and the score was lost until it was reconstructed from Porter's and Koechlin's manuscripts between 1966 and 1990, with help from Milhaud among others.^[20] Porter had less success with his work on Greenwich Village Follies (1924). He wrote most of the original score, but his songs were gradually dropped during the Broadway run, and by the time of the post-Broadway tour in 1925, all his numbers had been deleted.^[21]

Broadway success

Irène Bordoni, star of Porter's Paris

At the age of 36, Porter reintroduced himself to Broadway in 1928 with the musical Paris. It was commissioned at the instigation of its star, Irène Bordoni. She had wanted Rodgers and Hart to write the songs, but they were unavailable, and Porter's agent persuaded Bordoni's impresario husband to hire Porter instead.^[22] His work on the show was interrupted by the death of his father at the age of 69 in August 1928; Porter hurried back to Indiana to comfort his mother, before returning to work on the songs for the show. These included "Let's Misbehave" and one of his best-known list songs, "Let's Do It", which was introduced by Bordoni and Arthur Margetson.^[23] The show opened on Broadway on October 8, 1928. The Porters did not attend the first night because Porter was in Paris supervising another show for which he had been commissioned, La Revue at the Ambassadeurs nightclub.^[24] Both shows were successes, and, in Citron's phrase, Porter was finally "accepted into the upper echelon of Broadway songwriters".^[25] After this, Cochran wanted more from Porter than isolated extra songs; he planned a West End extravaganza similar to Ziegfeld's shows, with a Porter score and a large international cast led by Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Tilly Losch. The show, Wake Up and Dream ran for 263 performances in London, after which Cochran transferred it to New York. There, business was badly affected by the 1929 Wall Street crash,^[26] and the show ran for only 136 performances. From Porter's point of view it was nonetheless a success, as his song "What is This Thing Called Love?" became immensely popular independently of the show.^[27]

Porter's new fame brought him offers from Hollywood, but as his score for Paramount's The Battle of Paris was undistinguished, and its star, Gertrude Lawrence, was miscast, the film was not a success.^[28] Citron expresses the view that Porter was not interested in cinema and "noticeably wrote down for the movies."^[29] Still on a Gallic theme, Porter's last Broadway show of the 1920s was Fifty Million Frenchmen (1929), for which he wrote 28 numbers, including "You Do Something to Me", "You've Got That Thing" and "The Tale of the Oyster".^[30] The show received mixed notices. One critic wrote, "the lyrics alone are enough to drive anyone but P.G. Wodehouse into retirement", but others dismissed the songs as "pleasant" and "not an outstanding hit song in the show". As it was a lavish and expensive production, nothing less than full houses would suffice, and after only three weeks the producers announced that they would close it. Irving Berlin, who was an admirer and champion of Porter, took out a paid press advertisement calling the show "The best musical comedy I've heard in years.... One of the best collections of song numbers I have ever listened to". This saved the show, which ran for 254 performances, considered a successful run at the time.^[31]

1930s

Ray Goetz, producer of Paris and Fifty Million Frenchmen, whose success had kept him solvent when other producers were bankrupted by the post-crash slump in Broadway business, invited Porter to write a musical show about the other city that he knew and loved: New York. Goetz offered the team with whom Porter had last worked, Herbert Fields writing the book and Porter's old friend Monty Woolley directing.^[32] The New Yorkers (1930) acquired instant notoriety for including a song about a streetwalker, "Love for Sale". Originally performed by Kathryn Crawford in a street setting, critical disapproval led Goetz to reassign the number to Elizabeth Welch in a nightclub scene. The lyric was considered too explicit for radio at the time, though it was recorded and aired as an instrumental and rapidly became a standard.^[33] Porter often referred to it as his favorite of his songs.^[34] The New Yorkers also included the hit "I Happen to Like New York".^[35]

Elisabeth Welch starred in Porter's The New Yorkers and Nymph Errant

Next came Fred Astaire's last stage show, Gay Divorce (1932). It featured a hit that became Porter's best-known song, "Night and Day".^[36] Despite mixed press (some critics were reluctant to accept Astaire without his previous partner, his sister Adele), the show ran for a profitable 248 performances, and the film rights were sold to RKO Pictures.^[37] Porter followed this with a West End show for Gertrude Lawrence, Nymph Errant (1933), presented by Cochran at the Adelphi Theatre, where it ran for 154 performances. Among the hit songs Porter composed for the show were "Experiment" and "The Physician" for Lawrence, and "Solomon" for Elizabeth Welch.^[38]

In 1934, producer Vinton Freedley came up with a new approach to producing musicals. Instead of commissioning book, music and lyrics and then casting the show, Freedley sought to create an ideal musical with stars and writers all engaged from the outset.^[39] The stars he wanted were Ethel Merman, William Gaxton and comedian Victor Moore. He planned a story around a shipwreck and a desert island, and for the book he turned to P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton. For the songs, he decided on Porter. By dint of telling each of these that he had already signed the others, Freedley gathered his ideal team together.^[40] A drastic last-minute rewrite was necessitated by a major shipping accident, which dominated the news and made Bolton and Wodehouse's book seem tasteless.^[41] Nevertheless, the show, Anything Goes, was an immediate hit. Porter wrote what is thought by many to be his greatest score of this period. The New Yorker magazine said, "Mr. Porter is in class by himself",^[42] and Porter himself subsequently called it one of his two perfect shows, along with the later Kiss Me, Kate.^[42] Its songs include "I Get a Kick out of You", "All Through the Night", "You're the Top" (one of his best-known list songs), and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow", as well as the title number.^[43] The show ran for 420 performances in New York (a particularly long run in the 1930s) and 261 in London.^[44] Porter, despite his lessons in orchestration from d'Indy, did not orchestrate his musicals. Anything Goes was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett and Hans Spialek.^[45] Now at the height of his success, Porter was able to enjoy the opening night of his musicals; he would make a grand entrance and sit in front, apparently relishing the show as much as any audience member. Russel Crouse commented, "Cole's opening-night behaviour is as indecent as that of a bridegroom who has a good time at his own wedding."^[42]

Anything Goes was the first of five Porter shows featuring Merman. He loved her loud, brassy voice and wrote many numbers that featured her strengths.^[46] Jubilee (1935), written with Moss Hart while on a cruise around the world, was not a major hit, running for only 169 performances, but it featured two songs that have since become standards, "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things".^[47] Red Hot And Blue (1936), featuring Merman, Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope, ran for 183 performances and introduced "It's De-Lovely", "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)", and "Ridin' High".^[48] The relative failure of these shows convinced Porter that his songs did not appeal to a broad enough audience. In an interview he said, "Sophisticated allusions are good for about six weeks ... more fun, but only for myself and about eighteen other people, all of whom are first-nighters anyway. Polished, urbane and adult playwriting in the musical field is strictly a creative luxury."^[49]

Porter also wrote for Hollywood in the mid-1930s. His scores include those for Born to Dance (1936), featuring "You'd Be So Easy to Love" and "I've Got You Under My Skin", and Rosalie (1937), featuring "In the Still of the Night". In addition, he composed the cowboy song "Don't Fence Me In" for an unproduced movie in the 1930s, but it did not become a hit until Roy Rogers and Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters, as well as other artists, introduced it to the public in the 1940s. The Porters took up residence in Hollywood in December 1935, but Linda did not like the movie environment, and Porter's homosexual peccadillos, formerly very discreet, became less so, and so she retreated to their Paris house.^[50] When his film assignment was finished, Porter hastened to Paris to make his peace with Linda, but she remained cool. They were shortly brought back together by a terrible accident suffered by Porter.^[51]

On October 24, 1937, Porter was riding with Countess Edith di Zoppola and Duke Fulco di Verdura at Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley, New York, when his horse rolled on him and crushed his legs, leaving him substantially crippled and in constant pain for the rest of his life. Though doctors told Porter's wife and mother that his right leg would have to be amputated, and possibly the left one as well, he refused to have the procedure. Linda rushed from Paris to be with him, and supported him in his refusal of amputation.^[52] He remained in the hospital for seven months and was then allowed to go home to his apartment at the Waldorf Towers.^[53] He resumed work as soon as he could, finding it took his mind off his perpetual pain.^[54]

Porter's first show after his accident was not a success. You Never Know (1938), starring Clifton Webb, Lupe Vélez and Libby Holman, ran for only 78 performances.^[55] The score included the songs, "From Alpha to Omega" and "At Long Last Love".^[56] He returned to success with Leave It to Me! (1938); the show introduced Mary Martin, singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", and other numbers included "Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love" and "From Now On".^[57] Porter's last show of the 1930s was DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), a particularly risqué show, starring Merman and Bert Lahr.^[58] After a pre-Broadway tour, during which it ran into trouble with the Boston censors,^[59] it ran for 408 performances, beginning at the 46th Street Theatre.^[60] The score included "But in the Morning, No" (which was banned from the airwaves), "Do I Love You?", "Well, Did You Evah!", "Katie Went to Haiti" and another of Porter's up-tempo list songs, "Friendship".^[61] At the end of 1939, Porter contributed six songs to the film Broadway Melody of 1940 for Fred Astaire, George Murphy and Eleanor Powell.^[62]

1940s and postwar

Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich

Panama Hattie (1940) was Porter's longest-running hit so far, running in New York for 501 performances, despite the absence of any enduring Porter songs.^[63] It starred Merman, with Arthur Treacher and Betty Hutton. Let's Face It! (1941), starring Danny Kaye, had an even better run, with 547 performances in New York.^[64] This, too, lacked any numbers that became standards, and Porter always counted it among his lesser efforts.^[65] Something for the Boys (1943), starring Merman, ran for 422 performances, and Mexican Hayride (1944), starring Bobby Clark, with June Havoc, ran for 481 performances.^[66] These shows, too, are short of Porter standards. The critics did not pull their punches; they complained about the lack of hit tunes and the generally low standard of Porter's scores.^[67] After two flops, Seven Lively Arts (1944) (which featured the standard "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye") and Around the World (1946), many thought that Porter's best period was over.^[68]

In between his Broadway shows of the 1940s, Porter again wrote for Hollywood. His film scores of this period were You'll Never Get Rich (1941) with Astaire and Rita Hayworth, Something to Shout About (1943) with Don Ameche, Janet Blair and William Gaxton, and Mississippi Belle (1943–44), which was abandoned before filming began.^[69] He also cooperated in the making of the film Night and Day (1946), a largely fictional biography of Porter, with Cary Grant implausibly cast in the lead. The critics scoffed, but the film was a huge success, chiefly because of the wealth of vintage Porter numbers in it.^[70] The success of the biopic contrasted severely with the failure of Vincente Minnelli's film The Pirate, in 1948, in which five new Porter songs received little attention.^[71]

From this low spot, Porter made a conspicuous comeback, in 1948, with Kiss Me, Kate. It was by far his most successful show, running for 1,077 performances in New York and 400 in London.^[72] The production won the Tony Award for best musical (the first Tony awarded in that category), and Porter won for best composer and lyricist. The score includes "Another Op'nin', Another Show", "Wunderbar", "So In Love", "We Open in Venice", "Tom, Dick or Harry", "I've Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua", "Too Darn Hot", "Always True to You (in My Fashion)", and "Brush Up Your Shakespeare".^[73]

Porter began the 1950s with Out Of This World (1950), which had some good numbers but too much camp and vulgarity,^[74] and was not greatly successful. His next show, Can-Can (1952), featuring "C'est Magnifique" and "It's All Right with Me", was another hit, running for 892 performances.^[75] Porter's last original Broadway production, Silk Stockings (1955), featuring "All of You", was also successful, with a run of 477 performances.^[76] The film High Society (1956), starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly, had Porter's last major hit song, "True Love".^[1] The film was later adapted as a stage musical of the same name. Porter wrote numbers for the film Les Girls (1957) with Gene Kelly. His final score was for a CBS television color special, Aladdin (1958).^[77]

Last years

Porter's mother died in 1952, and his wife died from emphysema in 1954.^[78] By 1958, Porter's injuries caused a series of ulcers on his right leg. After 34 operations, it had to be amputated and replaced with an artificial limb.^[79] His friend Noël Coward visited him in the hospital and wrote in his diary, "The lines of ceaseless pain have been wiped from his face.... I am convinced that his whole life will cheer up and that his work will profit accordingly."^[80] In fact, Porter never wrote another song after the amputation and spent the remaining six years of his life in relative seclusion, seeing only intimate friends.^[79] He continued to live in the Waldorf Towers in New York in his memorabilia-filled apartment. On weekends he often visited an estate in the Berkshires, and he stayed in California during the summers.^[12]

Porter died of kidney failure on October 15, 1964, at the age of 73 in Santa Monica, California. He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in his native Peru, Indiana, between his wife and father, even though Porter was not close to his father.^[81]

Tributes and legacy

Porter family gravesite in Peru, Indiana

Many artists have recorded Porter songs, and dozens have released entire albums of his songs.^[82] In 1956, the album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook was released by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. She followed this in 1972 with another Porter collection, Ella Loves Cole. Among the many album collections of Porter songs are the following: Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook (1959); Anita O'Day Swings Cole Porter with Billy May (1959); All Through the Night: Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter (1965); Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Cole Porter (1982); and Anything Goes: Stephane Grappelli & Yo-Yo Ma Play (Mostly) Cole Porter (1989).^[82] In 1990 Dionne Warwick released an album called Dionne Sings Cole Porter. In that same year Red Hot + Blue was released featuring 20 Cole Porter songs recorded by artists such as U2, Annie Lennox and Shane MacGowan as a benefit CD for AIDS research. Another collection is Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Cole Porter (1996). John Barrowman, who played "Jack" in the 2004 film De-Lovely released a collection of Cole Porter songs, "John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter," in October 2004.

Judy Garland performed a medley of Porter's songs at the 37th Academy Awards, the first Oscars ceremony held following Porter's death. In contrast with the highly embroidered and sanitized screen biography in Night and Day, his life was chronicled more realistically in De-Lovely, a 2004 Irwin Winkler film starring Kevin Kline as Porter and Ashley Judd as Linda.^[83] In 1980, Porter's music was used for the score of Happy New Year, based on the Philip Barry play Holiday. The Cole Porter Festival is held every year during the second weekend of June in his hometown of Peru, Indiana. The festival fosters music and art appreciation by celebrating Porter's life and music. In December 2010, his portrait was added to the Hoosier Heritage Gallery in the office of the Governor of Indiana.^[84] Porter appears as a character in Woody Allen's 2011 film Midnight in Paris.^[85]

Singers who have paid tribute to Porter in their work include the Swedish pop group Gyllene Tider, which recorded a song called Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång (That girl from the Cole Porter song) in 1982. In country singer Jo Dee Messina's song "These Are the Days", the protagonist reveals that she sings old Cole Porter songs. He is referenced in the song "The Call of the Wild" (Merengue) by David Byrne on his 1989 album Rei Momo. He is also mentioned in the song "Tonite It Shows" by Mercury Rev on their 1998 album Deserter's Songs. At halftime of the 1991 Orange Bowl between Colorado and Notre Dame, Joel Grey led a large cast of singers and dancers in a tribute to Porter marking the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. The program was called, "You'll Get a Kick Out of Cole".^{[citation needed]}

Porter was a Steinway artist, performing exclusively on Steinway pianos. His own Steinway piano is currently in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.^[86][87]

Notable songs

Shows listed are stage musicals unless otherwise noted. Where the show was later made into a film, the year refers to the stage version. A complete list of Porter's works is in the Library of Congress (see also the Cole Porter Collection).^[88]

A far more comprehensive list of Cole Porter songs, along with their date of composition and original show, is available online at the "Cole Porter Songlist Page".^[89]

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