Songs from 1929 to 1944
Cole Porter
Cole Porter wrote these seven songs between 1929 and 1944, for a London revue, Broadway shows and a film. Singers, pianists and horn players all took them up. This page follows the records decade by decade, from Fred Astaire and Ethel Merman to Ella Fitzgerald's Song Book, quintets and the albums of the 2010s.
Through the years
- 1920s
Porter's What Is This Thing Called Love is introduced in 1929 in the London revue Wake Up and Dream.
- 1930s
Five of the seven songs are written in this decade, among them Love for Sale in 1930 and Night and Day in 1932. James P. Johnson plays What Is This Thing Called Love as a stride piano solo in 1930, Fred Astaire's record of Night and Day is the year's top seller in 1932, Ethel Merman records I Get a Kick Out of You in 1934, and Billie Holiday sings Easy to Love with Teddy Wilson's band in 1936.
- 1940s
Porter writes I Love You for the 1944 show Mexican Hayride, and Bing Crosby records it that February, and his record spends five weeks in first place. Billie Holiday sings What Is This Thing Called Love in 1945 with Bob Haggart's orchestra and a strings sextet. That year Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker play Hot House, Tadd Dameron's new melody over the song's , which becomes an anthem of .
- 1950s
The songs become jazz material. Charlie Parker plays Easy to Love with strings in 1950 and two more songs with a quintet in 1954, Oscar Peterson records two of them in 1952 for an album issued in 1953, and Clifford Brown and Max Roach take I Get a Kick Out of You past seven minutes. Ella Fitzgerald's 1956 Cole Porter Song Book is the first album on Verve, and I Love You is recorded by Bill Evans's trio in 1956 and John Coltrane's trio in 1957.
Charlie Parker with Joe Lippman's orchestra Easy to Love · 1950Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown Easy to Love · 1950Bud Powell Just One of Those Things · 1951Oscar Peterson Trio Love for Sale · 1951Oscar Peterson Trio I Love You · 1952Oscar Peterson Quartet Just One of Those Things · 1952The Dave Brubeck Quartet Just One of Those Things · 1952Chet Baker Quartet Easy to Love · 195328 more
Frank Sinatra I Get a Kick Out of You · 1953Charlie Parker Quintet I Get a Kick Out of You · 1954Clifford Brown - Max Roach Quintet I Get a Kick Out of You · 1954Frank Sinatra Just One of Those Things · 1954Charlie Parker Love for Sale · 1954Wes Montgomery Love for Sale · 1955Art Tatum, Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich What Is This Thing Called Love · 1955Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman Easy to Love · 1956Ella Fitzgerald I Get a Kick Out of You · 1956Bill Evans Trio I Love You · 1956Ella Fitzgerald Just One of Those Things · 1956Sonny Criss Quintet Just One of Those Things · 1956Ella Fitzgerald Love for Sale · 1956Sonny Criss Love for Sale · 1956Frank Sinatra with Nelson Riddle Night and Day · 1956Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman Night and Day · 1956Art Tatum – Ben Webster Quartet Night and Day · 1956Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet What Is This Thing Called Love · 1956Louis Armstrong with Oscar Peterson I Get a Kick Out of You · 1957John Coltrane Trio I Love You · 1957Art Farmer Quintet I Love You · 1958Hampton Hawes Quartet I Love You · 1958Cannonball Adderley Quintet with Milt Jackson Just One of Those Things · 1958Cannonball Adderley Love for Sale · 1958Bill Evans Trio Night and Day · 1958Anita O'Day with Billy May I Get a Kick Out of You · 1959Anita O'Day with Billy May I Love You · 1959Bill Evans Trio What Is This Thing Called Love · 1959 - 1960s
Instrumentalists lead. Bill Evans plays Easy to Love alone in 1962, Dexter Gordon records Love for Sale for Blue Note the same year, and Cannonball Adderley's sextet plays Easy to Love live in Tokyo in 1963. Joe Henderson takes Night and Day on Inner Urge in 1964, and in 1966 Dave Brubeck's quartet with Paul Desmond records an album of Porter songs.
- 1970s
The settings range from one guitar to a large studio band. Joe Pass plays Night and Day alone on guitar in 1973, Lee Konitz and bassist Red Mitchell record Easy to Love as a duo in 1974, and Stan Getz and João Gilberto play Just One of Those Things in New York in 1975 with a large studio band.
- 1980s
Piano trios and guitars carry the songs. Tommy Flanagan plays I Love You in New York in February 1980 with Red Mitchell and Elvin Jones, and Tal Farlow and Lenny Breau play it as a guitar duet that May. Jimmy Raney's quartet opens Raney '81 with What Is This Thing Called Love, with two guitars in the lead, and Joe Pass brings Love for Sale to a guitar trio in 1982.
- 1990s
Two live trios stretch out What Is This Thing Called Love. Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau and Charlie Haden play What Is This Thing Called Love for over eleven minutes with no drums in 1996, and Keith Jarrett's trio runs over twelve minutes on it in Paris in 1999. Wallace Roney leads a quintet with Ravi Coltrane and Geri Allen on Love for Sale in 1993.
- 2000s
Patricia Barber sings and plays piano on Easy to Love in Chicago in December 2007, with guitar, bass and drums, for her Blue Note album The Cole Porter Mix. Jamie Cullum records I Get a Kick Out of You in London in 2003 and Just One of Those Things in 2009.
- 2010s
Vincent Herring records Night and Day in 2014 with a trumpet beside his alto saxophone over a piano trio, and names his 2015 album after it. George Benson records Just One of Those Things on a 2013 tribute to Nat King Cole, and Harold Mabern plays I Get a Kick Out of You in 2017 with Eric Alexander on tenor saxophone and Jimmy Cobb on drums.