You're the Top
"You're the Top" is a Cole Porter song from the 1934 musical Anything Goes. It is about a man and a woman who take turns complimenting each other. The best-selling version was Paul Whiteman's Victor single, which made the top five.
| "You're the Top" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | 1934 |
| Songwriter(s) | Cole Porter |
It was the most popular song from Anything Goes at the time, with hundreds of parodies.[1][2]
The lyrics are particularly notable because they offer a snapshot as to what was highly prized in the mid-1930s and demonstrate Porter's rhyming ability.[citation needed]
Some of the lyrics were re-written by P. G. Wodehouse for the British version of Anything Goes.
People and items referenced in the song edit
The following is a list of the references used in the version recorded by Cole Porter on November 26, 1934:
- Colosseum
- Louvre Museum
- Melody from a symphony by Strauss
- Bendel bonnet
- Shakespeare's sonnets
- Mickey Mouse
- The Nile
- The Tower of Pisa
- The smile on the Mona Lisa
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Napoleon Brandy
- Purple light of a summer night in Spain
- National Gallery
- Garbo's salary (alternately recorded as "Crosby's salary", a reference to Bing Crosby, who twice starred in film versions of Anything Goes)
- Cellophane
- Turkey dinner
- The time of a Derby winner
- Arrow collar
- Coolidge Dollar (referencing the financial prosperity of the Roaring Twenties under US President Coolidge)
- The nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire
- O'Neill drama
- Whistler's Mother
- Camembert
- Rose
- Dante's Inferno
- The nose of Jimmy Durante
- Waldorf salad
- Berlin ballad
- A Dutch Master
- Mrs. Astor: Mary Astor, Lady Astor,[3][4] Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, or Ellen Tuck French[5]
- Pepsodent
- Steppes of Russia
- The pants on a Roxy usher
The 1934 recording with Cole Porter's vocals and piano is available on a CD -- Cole Porter: A Centennial Collection (track 18 of 20), Sony Legacy, CD release 2007
Additional references in other versions of the song:
- Dance in Bali
- Hot tamale
- A painting by Botticelli
- John Keats
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Ovaltine
- Boulder Dam
- The Moon
- Mae West's shoulder
- The nominee of the G.O.P. (Republican Party, which won the presidential elections of 1920, 1924 and 1928)
- Zuider Zee
- Broccoli (which had only recently become well known in the US)
- Ritz hot toddy
- Brewster body
- Bishop Manning
- Nathan panning
- A night at Coney
- The eyes of Irène Bordoni
- Tower of Babel
- Whitney stable
- Stein of beer
- A dress from Saks Fifth Avenue
- Next year's taxes
- Stratosphere
- Max Baer
- Russian ballet
- Rudy Vallée
- Phenolax (a 1930s laxative made from phenolphthalein)
- Drumstick lipstick
- Irish Sweepstakes
- Vincent Youmans
P. G. Wodehouse anglicised it for the British version of Anything Goes. Among other changes, he altered two lines from "You’re an O’Neill drama / You’re Whistler’s mama!" to "You’re Mussolini / You’re Mrs Sweeny" (both figures, later notorious, were widely admired at the time)[6][7]
Versions of the song edit
- In 1985, a series of Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercials in Canada featured various cover versions of the song as their jingle.[8]
- In John Mortimer's novel Paradise Postponed (1985) and the television series of the same name (Euston Films, 1986): A rendering of the song by a fictitious performer, Pinky Pinkerton, includes the line, "You're my Lady Grace", which signifies Lady Grace Fanner in the story.[9]
Parodies edit
Porter biographer William McBrien wrote that at the height of its popularity in 1934 to 1935 it had become a "popular pastime" to create parodies of the lyrics.[2] Porter, who himself had called the song "just a trick" the public would get bored by,[2] was flooded with hundreds of parodies, one reportedly written by Irving Berlin.[2] Despite the ribald nature of some of the parodies, McBrien believes a few, including a King Kong parody, were written by Porter or Berlin.[10] The performance of the song in the American Cabaret Theatre biographical musical Cole & Noel (2001) had the line "I'm talkin' King Kong's penis".
References edit
- ^ Redmond, James (1981). Drama, Dance and Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-521-22180-1.
- ^ a b c d McBrien, William (1998). Cole Porter : a biography (1 ed.). New York: Knopf. pp. 169–171. ISBN 978-0-394-58235-1.
- ^ Noah, Timothy (June 9, 2005). "A skeleton key to "You're the Top."". Slate. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
- ^ Day to Day. June 10, 2005. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
- ^ Botto, Louis (December 10, 1997). "A User's Guide to Cole Porter's "You're the Top". Playbill. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
- ^ "Mayfair, the Duchess of Argyll and the Headless Man polaroids". Another Nickel In The Machine. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
- ^ Hoge, Warren (16 August 2000). "London Journal; A Sex Scandal of the 60's, Doubly Scandalous Now". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
- ^ "1985 Canadian commercial – Heinz Ketchup – You're the Top". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- ^ Mortimer, John (1985). Paradise Postponed. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 014009864X.
- ^ Noah, Timothy (18 June 2005). "Farewell to Berlin". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
External links edit
- Explanation of lyrics by Slate.com
- Additional Explanation of lyrics by Slate.com
- by Playbill
- Library of Congress essay on Porter's version on the National Recording Registry.