Cole Porter, music and lyrics · Introduced in the film Born to Dance (1936), after being cut from the show Anything Goes (1934)
Easy to Love
Easy to Love is a Cole Porter song from the 1936 film Born to Dance. Players like its flowing tune, which opens in a dark, haunting mood and then brightens. You can hear it from Billie Holiday in 1936 to Patricia Barber in 2007.
Listen in this order
Eight versions, from Billie Holiday with a small band in 1936 to Patricia Barber at the piano in 2007. On the way you hear a saxophone with strings, a piano and bass duo, a trumpet quartet, Ella Fitzgerald with an orchestra, a solo pianist and a live sextet. The film recording, a second Holiday version, Sonny Criss, a piano trio, Gene Ammons and a Lee Konitz duo sit with the extras.
1950sCharlie Parker with Joe Lippman's orchestra1950 · Bebop
Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown1950 · Cool jazz
Chet Baker Quartet1953 · Cool jazz
Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman1956 · Vocal
1960sBill Evans1962 · Cool jazz
Cannonball Adderley Sextet1963 · Hard bop
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000sPatricia Barber2007 · Contemporary jazz
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Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra · 1936
Single, Brunswick 7762
Billie Holiday sang it with Teddy Wilson's studio band in New York on October 21, 1936, the year the song came out in the film Born to Dance. Brunswick issued it on a single with The Way You Look Tonight.
A singer leads
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Listen for
Follow Billie Holiday's voice through the tune once, with a small band around her. At 3:11 it is short, so it works as a quick first listen before the longer versions.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 8 as written: , then , Am7, , , , , E7♭9. Hum the melody over them. Smaller version: play only the lowest note of each (A, B then E, A, D, G, C, B, E).
Charlie Parker with Joe Lippman's orchestra · 1950 · Bebop
Charlie Parker with Strings
Parker recorded it on July 5, 1950, in New York with the Joe Lippman orchestra and a of Bernie Leighton, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich. Mercury issued it on the single Mercury 11072.
With strings
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Listen for
Parker's alto saxophone leads, with violins, viola, cello and a harp around him and a piano, bass and drums underneath. Notice how the soft strings leave the saxophone in front.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 9 to 16: , , then , then , and the same four bars again. Smaller version: play only the first of each bar (Am7, D7, Gmaj7, Bm7), twice through.
Oscar Peterson and bassist Ray Brown recorded it as a duo in New York in August 1950. It first came out on the Clef LP Keyboard in 1956.
Piano and bass duo
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Listen for
There are only two players, Oscar Peterson on piano and Ray Brown on bass. With so little going on, the shape of the tune is easy to follow, including the opening part that comes back after the middle.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 25 to 32: , then , then , then , Am7, , , Bm7 then . Smaller version: play only the first of each bar.
Chet Baker's quartet with pianist Russ Freeman recorded it in Los Angeles at the end of July 1953. Pacific Jazz issued it on an EP and on the LP The Chet Baker Quartet.
Trumpet-led quartet
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Listen for
Baker's trumpet leads a four-piece band with Russ Freeman on piano. Notice how open the sound is with only one horn in the band.
Try it on your instrument
Play all 32 as A, B, A, C with one per bar (use the first chord when a bar has two), counting four beats in each bar. Smaller version: play only the first 16 bars.
Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman and His Orchestra · 1956 · Vocal
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book
Ella Fitzgerald recorded it in Hollywood in February 1956 with Buddy Bregman arranging and conducting. It is on her first Verve album, the first of the Song Book albums she made between 1956 and 1964.
A singer leads
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Listen for
Ella Fitzgerald sings with an orchestra led by Buddy Bregman. According to JazzStandards.com, her version adds the , a short opening passage sung before the main tune.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 8 slowly, one per bar (use the first chord when a bar has two), and hum the melody over them. Smaller version: play bars 1 to 4 only.
Bill Evans recorded it alone in New York on April 10, 1962. Milestone first issued it on the LP Conception in 1981 and reissued it on the 1999 CD Time Remembered.
Solo piano
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One player, Bill Evans at the piano. With no band, the tune and the underneath it come from the same hands, and the sound stays close and quiet.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of 1 to 8 with your left hand and the melody with your right, slowly. If that is too much, play the chords alone first, one per bar (the first chord when a bar has two).
The Cannonball Adderley Sextet played it at Sankei Hall in Tokyo on July 14, 1963, during a Japanese tour. It is the second track of the live LP Nippon Soul, which Riverside issued in 1964.
Live recording
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Listen for
A live recording from Tokyo, so a room of listeners is part of the sound. Cannonball Adderley's alto saxophone leads a sextet with a cornet, a second horn, piano, bass and drums.
Try it on your instrument
Soloing over is a bigger task than most listeners need. A smaller version: play 1 to 8, one per bar, and over each chord hold one note taken from it for the whole bar.
Patricia Barber recorded it in Chicago in December 2007 with guitar, bass and drums. It is on her 2008 Blue Note album The Cole Porter Mix.
A singer leads
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Listen for
Patricia Barber sings and plays piano herself, with guitar, bass and drums around her. It is the newest version on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole form once, 32 , one per bar, and say the section letter aloud as each begins: A, B, A, C. Every section starts on , so a smaller version is to play only that chord four times, eight bars apart.
Porter wrote the song for the show Anything Goes in 1934, then used it in the 1936 film Born to Dance, where James Stewart sings it. Billie Holiday recorded it that October with Teddy Wilson's band.
1950s
Charlie Parker plays it with a string section in 1950. Chet Baker's quartet records it in 1953, and Ella Fitzgerald sings it in 1956 on her first Song Book album for Verve.
1960s
Gene Ammons plays it on tenor saxophone in 1961, and Bill Evans records it alone at the piano in 1962. Cannonball Adderley's sextet plays it live in Tokyo in 1963.
1970s
Lee Konitz and bassist Red Mitchell record it as a duo in Copenhagen in July 1974.
2000s
Patricia Barber sings it and plays piano in Chicago in December 2007, with guitar, bass and drums, for her Cole Porter album.
More great versions
5 more, from 1936 to 1974. Tap a cover to play it here.
1930sJames Stewart and Marjorie Lane1936
1940s
1950sBillie Holiday1952 · Swing
Sonny Criss Quintet1956 · Bebop
Oscar Peterson Trio1959 · Bebop
1960s
1970sLee Konitz and Red Mitchell1974
James Stewart and Marjorie Lane (for Eleanor Powell)
1936
“Easy to Love (from Born to Dance)”, Born to Dance
James Stewart sings the song from the 1936 film Born to Dance, with Marjorie Lane singing for Eleanor Powell on this track. Porter had first written it for the 1934 show Anything Goes.
Billie Holiday cut it again in Los Angeles on March 26, 1952, sixteen years after her first record of it, this time with a band that included Oscar Peterson on piano. Mercury issued it on a single with You Turned the Tables on Me.
Sonny Criss recorded it in Los Angeles on October 3, 1956, for his album Sonny Criss Plays Cole Porter on Imperial. Larry Bunker adds vibraphone to the quintet and Sonny Clark plays piano.
Oscar Peterson's trio, with Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums, recorded it in Chicago in the summer of 1959 for the Verve album Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Song Book.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
G majorusual key
32 barsA · B · A · C form
A m → G → A m → Gkey centers
A8 bars
B8 bars
A8 bars
C8 bars
A m
G
A m
G
The tune runs 32 in four eight-bar sections: A, B, A, C. Each A opens in the dark colour of with and then , then Am7 and settle into in bar 5. Bar 6 is , and bars 7 and 8 (, E7♭9) lead back to Am7 to start the next section. B repeats one four-bar idea twice: Am7, D7, Gmaj7 then C7, Bm7 then E7♭9. The last A is the first A again. C ends the tune: Am7, then , Gmaj7 then C7, Bm7 then , Am7, D7, , and Bm7 then E7♭9 to turn back to the top. All four sections begin on Am7. The follow the iReal Pro chart.