| "You're the Top" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | 1934 |
| Songwriter | Cole Porter |
"You're the Top" is alist song byCole Porter, from the 1934 musicalAnything Goes. It is about a man and a woman who take turns complimenting each other. The best-selling version wasPaul Whiteman's Victor single, which made the top five. It was the most popular song fromAnything Goes at the time, with hundreds of parodies.[1][2] Some of the lyrics were re-written byP. G. Wodehouse for the British version ofAnything Goes. ComposerRobert Kapilow refers to "You're the Top" as one of Porter's greatest songs.[3]
Porter is believed to have written the song in Paris, while eating dinner at theLe Bœuf sur le toit with Lela Emery, the wife of Alastair Mackintosh. The two of them spent the time amusing themselves with aword game, "making up a list of superlatives that rhymed."[2]
The following is a list of the references used in the version recorded by Cole Porter on November 26, 1934:
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:
P. G. Wodehouse anglicised it for the British version ofAnything Goes. Among other changes, he altered two lines from "You’re an O’Neill drama / You’re Whistler’s mama!" to "You’reMussolini / You’reMrs Sweeny" (both figures, later notorious, were widely admired at the time)[7][8]
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 byIrving Berlin.[2] Despite the ribald nature of some of the parodies, McBrien believes a few, including aKing Kong parody, were written by Porter or Berlin.[11]
