- Title: Patricia Barber – The Cole Porter Mix
In The Cole Porter Mix singer/songwriter Patricia Barber re-records and reinterprets some of the biggest songs of Cole Porter. The thirteen tracks include Easy to Love, I Get a Kick Out of You, You’re The Top, Just One of Those Things, and In the Still of the Night.
The album also includes three original songs inspired by Cole Porter including The New Year’s Eve Song and Snow. The new songs fit easily with the reinterpreted Porter originals.
Although Barber has a nice voice and her obvious joy for these songs comes out, there’s nothing here that makes the collection all that interesting. Yes, it’s competently done, but why? For all her energy and style the songs don’t feel fresh and for those who own the original recordings, or even those of other musicians (including Frank Sinatra) covering the hits there’s little here to justify the purchase of another album of the same songs.
This collection is more a novelty than anything else. Longtime Cole Porter fans may enjoy this, but surely they own most of these songs sung by Porter himself and/or one of the many compilations done by other musicians over the years. And teens who don’t know who Porter is aren’t going to pick this up either. Still, it’s not an album to groove to, but as some easy listening background music you could do worse.