Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter

by

Various Artists

Edit

A tribute album of Cole Porter tunes as performed by some of the best musicians to come out of the 1980s. David Byrne of the Talking Heads, the Pogues, Tom Waits, U2, The Fine Young Cannibals, Annie Lennox, Jimmy Somerville of Bronski Beat, The Thompson Twins, Sinead O'Connor. There are three fantastic reasons to purchase this album: 1) It's 20 Cole Porter standards, 2) The album was produced in 1990 to benefit AIDS research, 3) The incomparable lineup of the musicians, mentioned above, plus Neneh Cherry, the Neville Brothers, Debbie Harry of Blondie and Iggy Pop, KD Lang, Erasure, Jody Watley, Aztec Camera and more.

Any one of these three reasons should be reason enough to buy this album, and if you score with all three on your list, then you will be overwhelmingly pleased. If you are simply a Cole Porter fan, have never heard of these bands and don't care to support AIDS research, then you will likely be unhappy with this album. But if you are even a fan of just one or two of these artists, the rest of the album will surprise and seduce you.

Perhaps the best track on the whole album is The Neville Brothers' "In the Still of the Night." Simply enchanting. David Byrne shines with the best of the best work from the Talking Heads era, African drumming and rhythms, on "Don't Fence Me In." Kirsty MacColl sings with the Pogues in a medley of "Miss Otis Regrets" and "Just One of Those Things," and for this long-time Pogues fan, it was surprising to find this musically rich track a full decade after the Pogues had split up. Wish I had known about this album in 1990 rather than finding it in 2004. Tom Waits takes some heat with other reviewers with his cover of "It's All Right With Me," but those reviewers obviously wouldn't like ANY Tom Waits tunes. I think it's a fantastic layer to this already rich hued album, and Waits fills his portion with gusto and relish. It is truly the tune I love to listen to the most, partly because it follows Byrne's cut and mostly because it just sucks me into another world, that Tom Waits World, and repeatedly sucks the breath out of me. I especially love the part where it seems like the song is over and then Waits comes back in for a reprise, doubly so after reading how much is pisses off some of the other reviewers. :-)

Neneh Cherry offers a prologue to the album that melds directly into her cover of "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the Fine Young Cannibals wail into "Love For Sale" with Roland Gift's voice nearly being mistaken for a muted trumpet. How did he do that? Iggy Pop and Debby Harry have too much fun with "Well Did You Evah" and until I looked at the credits I actually thought it was John Doe and Exene Cervenka from X. They should have been asked to contribute to this album. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins, he has a cut of "I Love Paris" that while is a bit more traditional than Les Negresses Vertes' version which is pure fun, Hawkins covering another Porter tune would have added more layers of spice to this CD. The Thompson Twins and Erasure shine with two songs I would never expect to hear from them, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Too Darn Hot," respectively. U2, Annie Lennox, KD Lang, Jody Watley, Sinead O'Connor and Aztec Camera all provide the solid stability of their talents to flesh out the core of the album, with the color added by the previously mentioned artists. The two tracks that could easily be lost and replaced by better artists are Salif Keita with "Begin the Beguine" and the Jungle Brothers with "I Get a Kick."

Purchase this album. It's a great tribute to Cole Porter and an even better contribution to supporting AIDS research. Get it to honor rare work of these excellent artists. All thumbs up! Five stars and more!

I am going to load this CD on my computer so that I can delete half of the tracks. Whoever had the bright idea of having someone rap out Cole Porter songs must've been on drugs. Cole Porter songs are known for their polished lyrics. Having hip-hop artists add what they think of as poetry is a travesty.

Some of the cuts are excellent. Sinead O'Connor needs to do more standards. Annie Lennox can sing anything and I'll love it. Tom Waits, on the other hand, sounds best singing his own music. Song samples listed on the Amazon web page give the best segments of the songs, not a representative sample. So, if you enjoy experimenting, or can afford to buy a whole CD for a few good tracks, get this CD. If you want an album of Porter's standards this is not for you.