Track Listing

1. 'Night And Day': 'Begin The Beguine' (Jubilee)
2. 'Night And Day': 'In The Still Of The Night' (Rosalie)
3. 'Night And Day': 'Easy To Love' (Born To Dance)
4. 'Night And Day': 'Two Little Babes In The Wood' (Greenwich Village Follies - Sixth Yearly Edition)
5. 'Night And Day': 'When My Baby Goes To Town' (Something For The Boys)
6. 'Night And Day': 'When I Had A Uniform On' (Hitchy-Koo 1919)
7. 'Night And Day': 'I've Got You Under My Skin' (Born To Dance)
8. 'Night And Day': 'Bring Me Back My Butterfly' (Hitchy-Koo 1919)
9. 'Night And Day': 'Who Said Gay Paree?' (Can-Can- Unused, Nicht verwendet, Inutilise)
10. 'Night And Day': 'A Fool There Was' (Rosalie - Can-Can- Unused, Nicht verwendet, Inutilise)
11. 'Night And Day': 'How's Your Romance?' (Gay Divorce)
12. 'Night And Day': 'My Cozy Little Corner In The Ritz' (Hitchy-Koo 1919)
13. 'Night And Day': 'Don't Fence Me In' (Hollywood Canteen)
14. 'Night And Day': 'Drink' (Seven Lively Arts)
15. 'Night And Day': 'Night And Day' (Gay Divorce)
16. 'Night And Day': 'It Was Written In The Stars' (Du Barry Was A Lady)
17. 'Night And Day': 'I Concentrate On You' (Broadway Melody Of 1940)
18. 'Night And Day': 'Bull Dog' (Yale College)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2593 in Music
• Released on: 1991-05-24
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Cole must have been watching over this project
John McGlinn's orchestrations on this compilation of Cole Porter tunes have as much to do with the brilliance of this CD as Mr Hampson's vocal renderings. Both have that lush sound that make a Porter tune sound like what this reviewer believes Porter would have appreciated, judging by his own versions of his songs, and the arrangements that he was involved in. McGlinn remained faithful to those original arrangements and added a few of his own ideas and along with modern day recording improvements produced a sound that I think Porter would very much approve of. My only complaint is the selection of songs, but that as always comes down to personal taste. However in doing so I was tuned into a few songs that I had never heard before, some of which are now among my favorite Porter songs. Specifically, 'Who said Gay Paree' is a sublime version of a lesser known Porter tune. It is one of his tunes about Paris but unlike the others its a sad tune of love lost with McGlinn and Hampson both at their finest. Another one new to me was'My Cozy Little Corner In the Ritz' an early Porter tune with him at his sarcastic best and a brilliant rendition. The standards are all briliantly done. 'In the Still of the Night' is my favorite, followed by I Concentrate on You', 'Easy To Love', 'Night and Day' (edging out Sinara's version, but not quite as magical as Fred Astaire's from the movie 'Gay Divorcee', but close) 'I've Got You Under My Skin' is divine, Begin the Beguine and 'Don't Fence me in'. All the others are great versions but none would make my top 50 Porter tunes. With the convenience of tracking with CD's though I program my favorites in and hear an hour of heavenly music from one of my favorite tunesmiths as interpreted by two contemporary masters of our time.

Totally unexpected pleasure
Generally, efforts by opera singers to sing popular music are grotesque. Pavarotti, Tebaldi, Sills et al. seem to make music that wasn't that great to begin with sound worse than it is. And generally the voices of the popular stars of Broadway musicals(Fred Astaire, Rex Harrison) are so mediocre that the music they sing seems mediocre too. So what Thomas Hampson (and his expert arranger) have done with these songs of Cole Porter is little short of miraculous: In Hampson's incredibly beautiful voice (one of the voices of the century) and perfectly sympathetic styling, the shape and wit--the genius--of Cole Porter's musical imagination is revealed probably for the first time since they were written. An astounding accomplishment, and a delight to the mind and ear.

Let theyself be hereby dubbed.........Best Broadway Tune Vocalist...

Of my dozens and dozens of Broadway music performances, I find only one singer can be dubbed "Best." That person, Thomas Hampson, is thee. While show performers and ballad singers have all had their way with these tunes, only one is across-the-board great in them.

And whether or not these are the "best" representative songs of Porter is a moot point, something entirely up to personal taste. The point is that these songs have not been better performed by an individual male singer. It certainly doesn't hurt, either, that the great John McGlinn was on board as conductor/director (and likely strongly involved in arranging).

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