The second volume in Naxos Nostalgia's series of compilations of vintage pop recordings of songs written by Cole Porter collects 18 examples cut between 1930 and 1943, starting with a version of "What Is This Thing Called Love?" from the musical Wake Up and Dream performed by Leo Reisman & His Orchestra that was a U.S. Top Five hit according to chart researcher Joel Whitburn and ending with British bandleader Ambrose's rendition of "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" from the musical Something to Shout About. In between, some of the performers who actually introduced the songs on-stage are heard from -- for example, Mary Martin singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" from Leave It to Me and Ethel Merman with "Make It Another Old Fashioned, Please" from Panama Hattie. But most of the tracks are drawn from contemporary covers by pop artists. The selection represents only a portion of the popular songs Porter published during the period. Among the missing are such hits as "Miss Otis Regrets," "Just One of Those Things," and "Begin the Beguine," but there were many others. Since this is one of those albums consisting of transfers from 78s, the choices seem to have been dictated by what records the contributors had in their collections. The original discs were issued by Victor, Brunswick, HMV, Decca, and Liberty Music Shop, and the modern equivalents of those labels still claim copyright in the U.S., although their ownership has lapsed in Europe, making albums like this possible. Considerable de-noise processing has been applied to improve the sound. But the album still qualifies as only a random sampling of Porter songs from the 1930s and '40s.
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