Cole Porter was born to play music. He could play both the piano and violin by the time he was six years old, but decided to pursue his talent at tickling the ivories. He began to compose music at the tender age of 10. Porter attended Worcester Academy, where he would be named valedictorian, and eventually went on to Yale. He composed a number of fight songs for the University, many of which remain Yale classics. Despite the heavy workload that comes with attending such a prestigious Ivy League college, Porter composed several works per year, mostly musicals.

After the brief pursuit of a career in law, Porter could not resist his passion for music and moved to New York to make his way in the world of music. After finding little success on Broadway, Porter relocated to Paris, where he would eventually break through toward the end of the 1920s. He returned to New York in 1930 and found his way back into Broadway with a number of popular shows. Porter was involved in a horse riding accident in 1937 that fractured both of his legs. A multitude of surgeries were unable to prevent the inevitable and he lost his right leg to amputation in 1954.

Porter passed away in 1964, but the reach of his music's popularity extended much further than the span of his lifetime. Those numbers that were unable to live on in his musicals have survived via sheet music and recordings by popular artists like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. Albums of his music have been released posthumously and his work has graced the soundtracks of a multitude of movies. Porter's music continues to live on and reach audiences through different mediums and should continue to do so for a long time.