Customer Reviews

Cole Porter Centennial Celebration

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This celebration of Cole Porter's 100th anniversary is "the top." The highlights of the disc are the three songs performed by Cole Porter himself. "Anything Goes," "You're the Top," and "Be Like the Bluebird" were recorded in about 1930, but are the gems of this collection. The intonation and inflection of Porter makes these songs funny and magical. These performances alone make the disc a good buy.

Also thrown in are vitage recordings by such noteworthies as Astaire, Mary Martin and Don Ameche. The Astaire rendition of "Night and Day," the oldest recording on the disc, is delovely and memorable.

In addition to these older performances, there are contemporary recordings by Andre Previn that were performed on the night of the 100th Anniversary celebration. No thinking person can listen to this disc and not be delighted and charmed.

This CD was released for Cole Porter's 100th birthday. It features music from the RCA Records vaults. The earliest song here is from 1932 and the most recent is from 1987. Naturally, with such a long time frame, there are a wide variety of performances. Some are better than others, but the highlights are three songs sung by Cole Porter himself accompanied only by piano. Recommended to Cole Porter fans.

Any music lover around my age (over 60) must have lots of Cole Porter songs in his current or past collections of recordings. I have owned original cast records, tapes or CD's of shows he composed, entire albums by pop singers dedicated to his songs, both vocal and instrumental jazz collections of his works, and even orchestral versions of his output. A nice touch on this compilation is that there are three tracks sung by Cole himself, with his own piano playing. These are from 1933-34, and represent the best of the few tunes he ever recorded himself. The 20 tracks offered here were laid down between 1932 and 1987, so the quality and the styles are wide-ranging. Artists performing include from Broadway, Patti Lupone, Alfred Drake, and Mary Martin. From Hollywood we hear Dinah Shore and Fred Astaire. From the concert stage we are treated to songs by The Robert Shaw Chorale and the Norman Luboff Chorus. The world of jazz gives us tracks by Artie Shaw, Andre Previn, Skitch Henderson and Al Hirt. You will also hear Mario Lanza, Lena Horne, and the Boston Pops. Cole's songs are universally clever, and therefore enjoyable even with repeated listening, and in all styles of musical expression. If you like him, add this one to your shelf. If you are not very familiar with his work, this is a good start.

I love Cole Porter. The songs he sings on the download are great as are the ones that are upbeat. My problem is some of the songs are too slow and serious for me to listen to.

This is a great CD to have in your collection it covers a wide spectrum to Cole Porters music from his earliest to his latest works.

If you like Cole Porter, this is a good one to add to your collection