Login
Login

You're the Top

{{short description|1934 Cole Porter song}}

{{Infobox song

| name = You're the Top

| cover =

| alt =

| type =

| written =

| published = 1934

| writer = Cole Porter

| composer =

| lyricist =

}}

"You're the Top" is a list song by Cole Porter, 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. It was the most popular song from Anything Goes at the time, with hundreds of parodies.{{cite book|last=Redmond|first=James|title=Drama, Dance and Music|year=1981|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-22180-1|page=60}} Some of the lyrics were re-written by P. G. Wodehouse for the British version of Anything Goes. Composer Robert Kapilow refers to "You're the Top" as one of Porter's greatest songs.Kapilow, Robrert

(2006). [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Youre-the-Top_Kapilow.pdf "'You're the Top'—Cole Porter (1934)"]. Library of Congress. Retrieved June 25, 2024.

Composition

Porter is believed to have written the song in Paris, while eating dinner at the Le Bœuf sur le toit with Lela Emery, the wife of Alastair Mackintosh. The two of them spent the time amusing themselves with a word game, "making up a list of superlatives that rhymed."

People and items referenced in the song

{{div col |colwidth=20em}}

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:

{{div col end}}

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){{cite web|title=Mayfair, the Duchess of Argyll and the Headless Man polaroids|url=http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2008/10/mayfair-the-duchess-of-argyll-and-the-headless-man-polaroids/|work=Another Nickel In The Machine|access-date=13 February 2012}}{{cite news|last=Hoge|first=Warren|title=London Journal; A Sex Scandal of the 60's, Doubly Scandalous Now|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/16/world/london-journal-a-sex-scandal-of-the-60-s-doubly-scandalous-now.html|access-date=13 February 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=16 August 2000}}

Versions of the song

  • In 1985, a series of Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercials in Canada featured various cover versions of the song as their jingle.{{cite web|title=1985 Canadian commercial – Heinz Ketchup – You're the Top| date=2 February 2008 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM5FElHbqL0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/UM5FElHbqL0 |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|access-date=18 October 2013|publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}
  • 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.{{cite book|last=Mortimer|first=John|url=https://archive.org/details/paradisepostpone00mort|title=Paradise Postponed|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1985|isbn=014009864X|location=London}}

Parodies

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.{{cite book|last=McBrien|first=William|title=Cole Porter : a biography|year=1998|publisher=Knopf|location=New York|isbn=978-0-394-58235-1|edition=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/coleporterbiogra00mcbr_0/page/169 169–171]|url=https://archive.org/details/coleporterbiogra00mcbr_0/page/169}} Porter, who himself had called the song "just a trick" the public would get bored by, was flooded with hundreds of parodies, one reportedly written by Irving Berlin. Despite the ribald nature of some of the parodies, McBrien believes a few, including a King Kong parody, were written by Porter or Berlin.{{cite magazine|last=Noah|first=Timothy|title=Farewell to Berlin|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2005/06/farewell_to_berlin.html|magazine=Slate Magazine|access-date=13 February 2012|date=18 June 2005}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.slate.com/id/2120550/ Explanation of lyrics] by Slate.com
  • [http://www.slate.com/id/2121015/ Additional Explanation of lyrics] by Slate.com
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20040829185223/http://www.playbill.com/features/article/64630.html Explication of lyrics] by Playbill
  • [https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/registry/essays/YOU'RE%20THE%20TOP.pdf Library of Congress essay] on Porter's version on the National Recording Registry.

{{Cole Porter}}

{{Anything Goes}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1934 songs

Category:Ethel Merman songs

Category:Barbra Streisand songs

Category:Ella Fitzgerald songs

Category:Songs written by Cole Porter

Category:Songs from Anything Goes

Category:List songs

Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings