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The Songs of Cole Porter

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J.O. Cole was the richest man in Indiana. His grandson, Cole Porter, was, for decades, the most celebrated, sophisticated songwriter in America — an elegant, risque, high-spirited trust-fund playboy hero of high culture and low.

Porter's songs were Broadway box-office dynamite for years, and are still hummed and whistled and sung around the world. Anything Goes, I've Got You Under My Skin, In the Still of the Night, Too Darn Hot, Begin the Beguine and hundreds more were and are delightful, delicious, de-lovely classics.

But were Porter's songs poetry? A new volume says yes. And we're happy to hear the case made.

Tune in for a trip to the moon on gossamer wings — the music and "lyrics as poetry," of Cole Porter.

Guests:

Robert Kimball, editor of "Cole Porter: Selected Lyrics."

This program aired on July 21, 2006.

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