Red Hot + Blue
1990 compilation album by various artists
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Red Hot + Blue is the first compilation album from the Red Hot Organization in the Red Hot Benefit Series. It features contemporary pop performers reinterpreting several songs by Cole Porter, with the album title based on Porter's musical Red, Hot and Blue.[7]
| Red Hot + Blue | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Compilation album by various artists | ||||
| Released | September 25, 1990 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 77:03 | |||
| Label | Chrysalis | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Red Hot Benefit series chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
.jpg) 2006 CD/DVD re-issue | ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
| Calgary Herald | A[2] |
| NME | 5/10[3] |
| Orlando Sentinel | [4] |
| Record Mirror | [5] |
| The Vancouver Sun | [6] |
Released in September 1990, the album sold over a million copies worldwide, raised nearly $1m for the activist group ACT UP, and was heralded as one of the first major AIDS benefits in the music business.[8] The accompanying ABC television special featured music videos for the songs.[7] Each performer contributes their own unique interpretation to their selection, expanding the premise popularized by Ella Fitzgerald in her 1956 Cole Porter tribute album.[7]
Red Hot + Blue was reissued as a two-disc set in 2006, including the original CD remastered, and a DVD of the video collection. Bloomsbury Publishing released a 2024 memoir by John S. Garrison that blends together the history of the album with his personal experience of listening to Red Hot + Blue as part of the publisher's 33⅓ book series.[9]
Singles and promotion
Besides the television special, some of the songs were promoted as singles. Neneh Cherry's reworked version of "I've Got You Under My Skin" was released as the lead single for the album in the UK and Europe and reached No. 25 on the UK Singles Chart.[10] "Well, Did You Evah!" by Deborah Harry and Iggy Pop received a commercial release in Europe and Australia and reached No. 42 on the UK Singles Chart,[11] No. 18 in Ireland[12] and No. 106 in Australia.[13]
Although no singles were released from the album in the United States, the song "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", covered in a techno style by Thompson Twins, received regular airplay on San Francisco's Live 105 (KITS). This was one of the two songs not to have a video counterpart. U2's cover of "Night and Day" reached No. 2 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart,[14] and presaged the electronic sound the band would explore on Achtung Baby the following year.
Annie Lennox reprised her performance of "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" in Derek Jarman's 1991 film Edward II.[15]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Cole Porter.