Once in a while, individuals of near-genius have produced works of art and music that simply take your breath away. The 1930s seem an unlikely period for such flourish of brilliance. Yet, nowhere is the darkness of that period more contradicted than in the joyous songs of Cole Porter (1891-1964). Although he continued to produce good work up to 1955, the 1930s were his decade. Porter’s oeuvre in the 1930s include such gems as Anything Goes, Don’t Fence Me In, Night and Day, Just One of Those Things, In the Still of the Night, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Begin the Beguine, I Get a Kick Out of You. And the list goes on, as if the Great Depression never happened. Or never mattered.

Here are four of my favourite Cole Porter numbers. Many more are available on YouTube.

LET’S DO IT (LET’S FALL IN LOVE), 1928

… Birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love …
Mosquitos, heaven forbid, do it
So does every katydid do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

ANYTHING GOES (1934)

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything goes …

I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU (1934)

I get no kick from champagne
Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all
So tell me why should it be true
That I get a kick out of you?…

ITS DE-LOVELY (1936)

The night is young, the skies are clear
So if you want to go walking, dear
It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely …

So please be sweet, my chickadee
And when I kiss you, just say to me
“It’s delightful, it’s delicious
It’s delectable, it’s delirious
It’s dilemma, it’s delimit, it’s deluxe
It’s de-lovely”