COLE PORTER | Cole Porter. Typescript with manuscript emendations of "Always True to You in My Fashion" from Kiss Me, Kate

COLE PORTER

ORIGINAL TYPESCRIPT OF THE FIRST AND SECOND REFRAINS OF "ALWAYS TRUE TO YOU IN MY FASHION" WITH AUTOGRAPH EMENDATIONS

1 p. (11 x 8 1/2 in.; 279 x 216 mm) on typing paper with holes punched in left margin, [Los Angeles?,] 22 April 1948; perforated holes torn, stains from paper clips in upper left corner.

Cole Porter makes important changes to one of his raciest songs, "Always True to You in My Fashion," from Kiss Me, Kate.

Kiss Me, Kate, Cole Porter's last great musical, opened on Broadway 30 December 1948 and has been revived countless times throughout the English-speaking world. Its two naughtiest songs are the ones that have remained the most popular and both demonstrate Porter's genius as a lyricist. One of those songs is "Too Darn Hot" and the other is the present song, here given the more cumbersome provisional title "But I'm Always True to You (Darlin' in My Fashion)." The song was first sung by Lisa Kirk, who originated the dual role of Lois Lane/Bianca in the original production.

In this working draft, Porter sharpens the lyrics of the well-known first and second refrains. In the typescript, the first lines of the first refrain read "When invited by a vet / In a bar for something wet, /If the vet begins to pet, I cry 'Hooray!'". Porter has scored through the weak lines and written in "If a custom-tailored vet / Asks me out for something wet, When the vet …." The second refrain begins with something much worse: "I am too, too much adored / By a veddy English lord, / When the lord goes overboard, I let him play." Porter scraps this clunker and replaces it with something much snappier: "I've been asked to have a meal / By a big tycoon in steel, / If the meal includes a deal, accept I may." That's more like it. Porter also changes "my friend from Boston, Mass." to "the boss of Boston, Mass." 

A vivid example of Cole Porter revising his lyrics and polishing them to perfection.