We start with a Cole Porter lyrical tour de force, the title song from his show Anything Goes, first sung by Ethel Merman on Broadway in 1934. Porter's Let's Do It was his first big success and dates back to 1928 and the show, Paris. Again, he wrote several extra verses, and his fabulous rhymes and risqué lyrics epitomise the spirit of the "Roaring Twenties".

George and Ira Gershwin wrote (I've Got) Beginner's Luck on this album and My One And Only, which is a rarity from their 1927 show Funny Face. The touching Love Is Here To Stay (from the 1938 film Goldwyn Follies) is heartfelt yet restrained and conversational, in true 1930's style. It was George's last song, written at the time of his untimely death in 1937 and completed by Vernon Duke.

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote This Can't Be Love for their 1938 stage show The Boys From Syracuse, and Have You Met Miss Jones? is from the 1937 show I'd Rather Be Right.

Jerome Kern,'s song with lyricist Dorothy Fields, A Fine Romance, is from another movie, Swing Time, from 1936. The same song writing team wrote You Couldn't Be Cuter and Just Let Me Look At You for the 1938 movie Joy of Living.

The catchy nature of Cheek To Cheek and Top Hat White Tie and Tails from Top Hat (1935), written by Irving Berlin, belies their complexity. Let's Face The Music And Dance and I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket are from Follow The Fleet (1936) and it hardly needs stating that all four songs were again written for Fred Astaire, whose personality permeates the music and lyrics. An Irving Berlin rarity is He Ain't Got Rhythm, from the 1937 film On The Avenue, in which it was performed by the zany Ritz Brothers.

The film which revived the fortunes of the movie musical after the 1929 crash was Forty Second Street (1933) for which Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me. The same team wrote the title tune to the 1934 movie Dames and again the lyrics are a joy, with "Who writes the words and music for all the girlie shows? No one cares and no one knows"! Finally, we have Dubin and Warren's Oscar winning Lullaby of Broadway from Gold Diggers of 1935, a subtle evocation of New York's frenetic nightlife.