You’re the Top: Cole Porter in the 1930’s

Jimmy Stewart appears on one track on the 3-CD boxed set, You’re the Top: Cole Porter in the 1930’s (Koch International Classics KIC-CD-7136), which was released in 1992.

You're the Top - Cole Porter

The set was also available on three cassettes (KIC-MC-7136).

The boxed set also includes a 128-page booklet. The CD’s were produced by Susan Elliot, Robert Kimball and Richard M. Sudhalter.

In 1993, the three CD’s were released individually, with Stewart’s track being found on Easy to Love: Cole Porter in the 1930s, Volume 2 (Koch International Classics 7218).

Easy to Love - Cole Porter in the 1930s, VolAccording to the booklet, edited by Susan Elliott and Paula Corpuz, which accompanied the boxed set, Porter himself auditioned Stewart. He had him come to his house and sing Easy to Love. Although he didn’t believe that Stewart had a good singing voice, he did think that he had some “nice notes in his voice.” His voice was good enough that he did record the song for the film. Stewart was later shocked when he went to see a preview of the film and found that his song had been overdubbed with a vocal by someone with a light British accent. According to Stewart himself, “…the big boys in the limousines on the way back from the preview decided that the song, by Cole Porter, was so good that even I couldn’t destroy it, so they put it back in.”