Cole Porter was such a great songwriter that even the (intentionally) cornily-performed version of "So in love" on the De-lovely soundtrack can get me choked up (specifically, at "till I die"). Man, I love that dude. I seriously think he should be the patron Great American Songbook composer of the geek world, in the same way that Bach is its patron "Classical" composer. Reasons:

• Wordy, cleverly rhymed lyrics (this is a subjective thing, but I think Porter was the king of lyric writing)
• Often created melodic/harmonic progression through iteration (repeating a melody several times, with one note moved a semitone higher each time; harmony going lower stepwise; etc.)
• In keeping with the age he lived in, used racial slurs in some lyrics (ever heard the original version of "Let's do it (let's fall in love)"?), giving geeks something to (a) freak out the norms with, and (b) have Hitler-invoking flame wars over

Seriously. The case is watertight.