Cole Porter

Whether Cole Porter or Irving Berlin deserves the title of America's supreme songwriter remains a matter of endless contention, since each supplied both melodies and words. Porter received childhood instruction on violin and piano, completed his undergraduate degree at Yale—where he composed still-performed fight songs including “Bulldog”—and later studied law and music at Harvard, all financed by an affluent grandfather who recoiled at the notion of a musical profession and never reconciled himself to it. During World War I Porter served in the French army; throughout the 1920s he resided in Paris as the spouse of a wealthy woman. Although he began placing hits during that decade, the 1924 song “I’m in Love Again” did not become popular until 1929.

An extensive catalog of stage and screen works followed. Porter’s words were erudite and worldly, yet they could also prove playful, suggestive, or risqué. His Broadway debut, Paris, opened in 1928 and featured “Let’s Do It”; the next year’s Fifty Million Frenchmen contained “You Do Something to Me.” He resettled in New York in 1930 while remaining, at heart, a lifelong Parisian. Among his notable productions were Wake Up and Dream, The New Yorkers, The Gay Divorcee, Jubilee, Leave It to Me, and Kiss Me, Kate. The accompanying songbook is equally formidable, encompassing “What Is This Thing Called Love,” “Love for Sale,” “Anything Goes,” “You’re the Top,” “Begin the Beguine,” and “Count Your Blessings,” to name only a handful. Screen credits include Silk Stockings, Born to Dance, Broadway Melody of 1940, High Society, and Night and Day.

A 1937 riding accident crushed Porter’s legs; he underwent repeated surgeries for the remainder of his life and lived thereafter as a semi-invalid. He underwent amputation of his right leg in 1958, four years after his wife’s death. His compositions nevertheless persist: multiple anthologies and collections of his music continue to appear on compact disc, among them the four-disc Smithsonian edition released in 1993.