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You're the Top
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Wikipedia article
"'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.
It was the most popular song from 'Anything Goes' at the start with hundreds of parodies.
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.
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
'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, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, or Ellen Tuck French
* Pepsodent
* Steppes of Russia
* The pants on a Roxy usher
'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 Irne 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 Valle
* 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 "Youre an ONeill drama / Youre Whistlers mama!" to "Youre Mussolini / Youre Mrs Sweeny"
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.
*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.
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. 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 few, including a King Kong parody, were written by Porter or Berlin. 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
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