Ray Goetz, the producer of “Paris” and “Fifty Million Frenchmen,” whose successes kept him solvent when other producers lost their shirts during the Depression, invited Cole to write a musical about the other city that he knew and loved: New York. Goetz offered Cole a chance to work with his team from “Fifty Million Frenchmen”: Herbert Fields for the book and Cole’s old buddy Monty Woolley directing. Jimmy Durante became a star thanks to this show.
This song was sung by a hooker in the show, which made it scandalous. It was banned from radio air play for years.
I saw it done as part of a Cole Porter set during the Seattle Chamber Music Festival where the singer was eight months pregnant. When she rubbed her swollen tummy during the line “Painted love, tainted love,” she brought the house down.
This 1930 version of the song loses the meaning of the lyrics in order to work it up as a fox trot. Beware. The video contains nudity.