I had high hopes for Harry Connick Jr.’s new album, True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter. After all, not many singers around today (read: people who are still alive) know who Cole Porter is, or can give his songbook the respect it deserves. Harry’s one of them, and still has the youthful cool cred to enlighten a 21st-century crowd.

Accompanying the album is a return to Broadway for Mr. Connick, a two-time Tony nominee though absent from the Great White Way since 2011. He’ll have his own show at the Nederlander Theatre in December featuring songs (and the orchestra!) from True Love.

Something tells me the show will be great. I’ve seen Harry perform a few times live and he is electric.

His studio album? Eh. Better than your average singer doing Sinatra karaoke (it’s hard not to hear it as that). It’s the music that’s great. Harry’s got enough respect in the music business that the best session players in the world want to record with him, so you can bet his bandmates are the cream of our top-flight music schools. And just as important… Harry can afford them. (When you play for the Yankees you expect to get paid.)

Bottom line: great tunes, solid arrangements, expert playing, but the CD lacks the magic of a live performance.

Guess I’ll have to see the show.