The Cole Porter recordings are not vintage

There's been a lot of confusion and mystery on the web about the origin of the Cole Porter songs that are played at the beginning of Act II. But after listening to the Anchor Bay DVD on good headphones, I'm pretty certain these recordings were created specifically for the film and are not vintage recordings from the 1930's. There are a number of giveaways:

- The arrangement of "Anything Goes" is highly suspicious in that it begins with a vocal verse, and has multiple instrumental verses with no return of the vocal. The common style in the 1930s was for the first verses to be instrumental, followed by a vocal refrain.
- The instrumental verses of "Anything Goes" perfectly coincide to when the characters in the film begin talking.
- The muted trumpet solo in "Anything Goes" is repeated, which would be odd for that era. The orchestra sounds more like Billy May in these latter verses than a band from the 1930's.
- "You Do Something to Me" also begins with a vocal verse. Granted this could be edited, but at 2 minutes it would be short for a 78 of that period.
- The recording itself sounds modern (i.e. of the early 70s). Recall that in the 1930s records were made with one microphone cut direct to disc. There was no multitrack recording.
- The rhythm section is very well defined in the mix on all the songs, characteristic of a multichannel recording. In particular the acoustic bass sounds very sharp and clear, unlike the muddy bass sound you would normally hear on a 1930s recording. Listen to how clear the piano is in "You Do Something to Me", too.
- Right after the doorbell rings, you can hear the recording pretty well. The clearly defined guitar, bass and snare drum at this point do not sound like a 30's recording. They also play a rhythm figure at this point that is suspicious to me: heavy on the backbeat which would be unusual for that time.

John Addison, the British composer, was in charge of the music and was nominated for an Oscar for his work on this very film. I think it would have been pretty easy for him to arrange these songs and have his very competent orchestra cut them in the studio. Audio engineers in post-production could have modified the recording to make it sound more 'vintage'.

It's still a terrific film.

Your most humble servant,
St. John Lord Merridew