What an elegant, SWELLEGANT party this is!

Appropriately enough considering the thread title, much of the music that I failed to appreciate at first, and never appreciated until advanced adulthood, has been Broadway show tunes and similar American "pop standards" from the pre-rock/pre-folk-scare era. Including Cole Porter (composer of "Well Did You Ever"), of course, and the Gershwin brothers, etc. etc.

For many years, I dismissed all music remotely associated with this branch of show biz as hopelessly uphip and "commercial." I had to learn to love this stuff from my wife, who spent several years of her youth studying acting in New York. I don't think she ever entertained ambitions to be a singer or dancer in musicals, but even as an aspiring "straight" dramatic and comedic actress, she's always loved those muscials, on film or on stage.

The two of us share much of the same taste and many of the same musical enthusiasms, including Dylan, the Grateful Dead and most psychedelia and "folk-rock" of the 60s (certainly including Janis), and definitely New Orleans music of all eras and genres. But just as I never got into the theatrical music that was such a big part of her life in the years before we met, she never had much interest in the traditional folk and hard-core blues that I was into during those same years. We're still learning about each other's "specialties."