Music
The iconic figure of the urbane Noël Coward clad in a silk dressing gown holding a cigarette holder in one hand and a cocktail in the other will always be with us - and was an image he actively courted - despite the fact that it belied the true nature of this committed writer and entertainer whose 'louche' disguise hid the hours spent with pen-in-hand and face-to-face with his typewriter. His mind always working on ideas and complexities for dramas, tunes and songs.
You do not produce some 50 plays and musicals and over 400 songs and lyrics from stylish reclining on a chaise longue! Noël Coward knew that the mythology of his persona was just a pleasant and necessary adjunct to his real skill as a craftsman of words and music - it is after all the image that most of us recall when his name is mentioned.
In this part of the site we look at the range and variety of Coward's musical work, its origins, appeal, popularity and place in the history of light music and the musical theatre. Detailed musical discussion is prompted by references to the NCMI where the music is looked at in some greater depth.
At this stage let's start by at looking at the popularity of Coward's songs - he has after all been referred to as the English Cole Porter - a composer with whom he is often compared and who was one of his greatest friends.
Author and composer Stephen Citron describes, in his book Noel & Cole, the reasons for their commonality:
"...for they traveled in the same sets, knew the same elegant citified people, and if you asked either to describe the other in a single word, he would probably have used 'urbane.' In fact that word might have been invented to describe these two personalities who wrote the most intellectual songs of the mid-twentieth century."
But which songs were, and still are, the most popular?
Soundtrack by Noël Coward composed of songs from Coward musicals.
Noël Coward's 'top twelve.'
By way of an introduction to Noël Coward's music the list below shows the most popular of his songs as judged by the number of times they have been performed.
Extracts are included that demonstrate a range of interpretations recorded by various performers and by Noël Coward himself.
Mad About the Boy Carmen McRae 'Mad About the Man' (Decca: DL 8662) Listen →
I'll See You Again Maude Maggart CD 'Look for the Silver Lining' Listen →
Mad Dogs and Englishmen Noël Coward ' Noël Coward at Las Vegas' (DRG: 19037) Listen →
The Grass is Greener (film score - I'll Follow My Secret Heart, Stately Homes of England and other songs)
If Love Were All Daryl Sherman 'I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All '(ASIN:B00002589E) Listen →
Someday I'll Find You Noël Coward 'Coward Songs' (CD MCSR 3030) Listen →
I'll Follow My Secret Heart Noël Coward 'Together With Music' Listen →
London Pride Julie Andrews 'The Lass With the Delicate Air' (ASIN:B000XFRTTM) Listen →
A Room With a View Heather Bambrick ' Those Were the Days' (iTunes) Listen →
Mrs Worthington The Mastersingers 'Rhapsody' (iTunes) Listen →
Poor Little Rich Girl Judy Garland ' The Best of Judy Garland' (ASIN: B000024VV8) Listen →
The Stately Homes of England 'Noel Coward - the Great Shows' (EMI 7243 5 21808 2) Listen →
(The Music of Noël Coward is grateful to all the officers and staff of Warner/Chappell Music and the Performing Right Society who provided access to their records and shared a lot of useful information about their licensing operations with the authors of the NCMI. More detail on the research that led to these results together with a full listing of the results can be found in the NCMI).
Click on any cover below to hear an extract from the song . . . the artists are: Gertrude Lawrence and Noël Coward, Noël Coward and Yvonne Printemps . . .
Recommended CDs
Any selection of available CDs is inevitably subjective; so those listed here are listed for a reason - in that they illustrate a particular aspect of Noël Coward and his compositions, the breadth and range of his work, a notable aspect, provide an interpretation that is of interest or for some other significant reason.
There are a large number of CDs available from Amazon in the US and the UK. They offer CD and mp3 sales. In the end you will be the judge! Apple's iTunes has a substantial range of Coward songs and music recorded by a wide range of artists - and you can hear extracts before you buy.
Selected extracts provide a flavour of what you can expect to hear on the CD.
Noël Coward’s Own Recordings
The HMV 4 CD set 'The Master’s Voice' (EMI 0777 7 80580 2 1) (in US: Angel 0777 7 54919 2 0)
is really the starting point for any collection of Coward's own recordings, but it is far from complete.
When, and if, all the CD releases on the NAXOS Nostalgia label are issued, (the first 4 are still available), they should provide what the NCMI calls 'a genuinely complete' collection. The details of the NAXOS CDs are:
Vol.1: A Room With A View (1928-1932) [year of issue - 2001]: 8.120529
Vol.2: Mad Dogs And Englishmen (1932-1936) [year of issue - 2001]: 8.120559
Vol.3: Mad About The Boy (1932-1943) [year of issue - 2002]: 8.120623
Vol.4: I Wonder What Happened To Him (1944-1951) [year of issue - 2004]: 8.120721
Noël Coward’s in Cabaret
Noël's cabaret performances (at Las Vegas) are limited to one recording - or perhaps we should say two - as the reissued CD of the original LP does contain some different versions of tracks and introductions from the same season of cabaret shows in the Nevada Desert. Almost immediately after his performance in Las Vegas Coward performed live in a 90-minute television show with Mary Martin where he sang many of the songs he used in his cabaret act. Apart from appearances on TV chat shows it is the only filmed performance of Coward in 'cabaret style.' The soundtrack was released under the name of the programme 'Together with Music'. Noël also went to New York in the same year to record a studio compilation that was issued as a companion recording of the Las Vegas album (Noël Coward in New York) but it has none of the vitality of those live cabaret performances.
Noël Coward at Las Vegas currently available on DRG: CD 19037 (2003) and in part on Sony CD MDK 47253 (The Noel Coward Album)Together With Music available on DRG: CDXP 1103Noël Coward in New York available on DRG: CD 19038 (2003)
Original Cast Recordings
In truth there are only 20 albums of recordings that can be said to contain any original cast recordings and in many cases only a few tracks on each. For a less contemporary but better quality recorded view of some of the music in the shows you may prefer to obtain a copy of a later revival - such as the recording of Bitter Sweet with Valerie Masterson and the New Sadler's Wells chorus (CD TER2 1160). Here are a selection to give a flavour of Noël's work at different times in his career. Some of these may only be available as used copies:
London Calling (CD Flapper PAST CD 7080)Bitter Sweet ('The Songs of Noël Coward' CD Flapper PAST 7080)Conversation Piece ('Noël Coward - The Great Shows' CD: EMI 7243 5 20729 2 7)Pacific 1860 (CD: Box Office ENBO-CD#8/93 (some titles are also available on CD Sepia 1043)Ace of Clubs (Noël Coward - The Great Shows CD: EMI 7243 5 21808 2 )After the Ball (CD: Sepia 1043 (2005))Together With Music - The whole of the TV broadcast soundtrack (CD:drg CDXP 1103)
London Morning - orginal recording is only on LP but a later recording (1995) is available on CD
(LP: 'A Special Event' drg SL 5180 - CD: 'The Grand Tour' SILVA CLASSICS SILKD 6007)
Sail Away (US cast CD: Broadway Angel ZDM 0777 7 64759 2 9 - UK cast CD: Fynsworth Alley302 062 179 2)
Other Notable Recordings
Here the list could be almost endless. Hardly a year goes by without an artist recording at least a track or two of Coward's music. In their time classic entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Julia Andrews, Judy Garland, Danny Kaye and Julie London have recorded their own versions of Coward classics. As listed elsewhere on the site in the CD 'Twentieth Century Blues,' created to raise money for the Red Hot AIDS Charitable Trust by the Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant, the cream of popular talent of 1998 recorded various Cowards songs with interpretations that created quite a lot of discussion at the time! Here are just a few recordings to give a flavour of what is available.
Bitter Sweet with Valerie Masterson and the New Sadler's Wells Orchestra and Chorus (CD TER2 1160)The Grand Tour (SILKD 6007 (1995))A Marvellous Party - The Music of Noël Coward and Friends (CDJAY 1375 (orig.1999))Twentieth Century Blues - The Songs of Noël Coward (EMI 7243 49463127 (1998))