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.
It was the most popular song from Anything Goes at the start with hundreds of parodies.[1]
The lyrics are particularly significant 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.
Contents |
[edit] People and items referenced in the song
The following is a list of many of the references made in the song:
- The Coliseum
- Louvre Museum
- Melody from a symphony by Strauss
- Bendel bonnet
- Shakespeare's sonnets
- Mickey Mouse
- The Nile
- The Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Mona Lisa
- Vincent Youmans
- 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 Shirts collar
- Coolidge Dollar (referencing the financial prosperity of the Roaring Twenties under US President Coolidge)
- Fred Astaire
- A drama by playwright Eugene O'Neill
- Whistler's Mother
- Camembert
- Rose
- Dante's Inferno
- Waldorf Salad
- Irving Berlin
- A Dutch Master
- The nose of Jimmy Durante
- Dance in Bali
- Hot Tamale
- A painting by Botticelli
- John Keats
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Ovaltine
- Boulder Dam
- The Moon
- Mae West's shoulder
- G.O.P. (U.S. Republican Party)
- Waldorf salad
- Berlin ballad
- Zuider Zee
- Lady Astor
- Broccoli
- Steppes of Russia
- 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
- Rudy Vallee
- Phenolax (a 1930s laxative made from Phenolphthalein)
- Drumstick lipstick
- Irish Sweepstakes
- Pepsodent
- The pants on a Roxy usher
- The nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire
P. G. Wodehouse anglicised it for the British version of Anything Goes. Amongst 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")[2][3]
[edit] Versions of the song
- Barbra Streisand: In the 1972 film What's Up, Doc?. (The film also features several Porter compositions in the form of elevator music.)
- Diana Rigg: In the 1982 Agatha Christie Poirot film, Evil Under the Sun.
- Ella Fitzgerald: In her Cole Porter songbook.
- Cole Porter: Over the end titles of the 2004 biopic De-Lovely. A different version, it was played by Hal Kemp Orchestra, vocal: Skinnay Ennis, appears in the soundtrack to the 2007 video game BioShock.
- Patti LuPone: In the 1987 Broadway (Lincoln Center) revival of Anything Goes.
- Louis Armstrong: In the 1994 album "Verve Jazz Masters 1"
- James Gillan in Easy Virtue
- Sutton Foster: In the 2011 Broadway revival of Anything Goes.
The "Washington vs. the Bunny" (season one, episode five) episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show features a version of the song performed for Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore) by her very young son Ritchie. In that version, Ritchie mistakenly alters the lyrics from "You're the Mona Lisa" to "You're the Mommy Lisa".
The song played a major role in the M*A*S*H episode "The Joker Is Wild" whereupon the loser of a "jokeoff" in the 4077th had to sing the song without his bottoms (pants) in the mess hall. Alan Alda's character Hawkeye ultimately had to make good on said promise.
Also sung as the introduction by Paul Jones and arranged by Richard Rodney Bennett for the ITV series The Charmer starring Nigel Havers.
There are alternate "dirty lyrics," variously attributed to Cole Porter himself, Irving Berlin, or one of the myriad parodists of the song[4] [5],
"You're The Top!
You're Miss Pinkham's tonic (alt.: "a gin and tonic")
You're The Top!
You're a high colonic
You're the rhythmic beat (alt.: "burning heat")
Of a bridal suite in use
You're the mound (alt.: "breasts") of Venus
You're King Kong's penis
You're self-abuse!
"You're an arch
In the Rome collection
You're the starch
In a groom's erection
I'm a eunuch who
Has just been through an op
But if, baby, I'm the bottom
You're The Top!"
[edit] References
- ^ James Redmond (editor) Drama, Dance and Music Cambridge University Press 1981 page 60
- ^ Mayfair, the Duchess of Argyll and the Headless Man polaroids
- ^ WARREN HOGE London Journal; A Sex Scandal of the 60's, Doubly Scandalous Now New York Times 16 August 2000
- ^ [1]
- ^ The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter" By Cole Porter, edited by Robert Kimball. Knopf, 1983, reprinted in paperback, Perseus, 1992; page 171
[edit] External links
- Explication of lyrics by Slate.com
- Additional Explanation of lyrics by Slate.com
- Explication of lyrics by Playbill
- Additional risqué lyrics at Slate.com of disputed provenance, possibly by Irving Berlin or Porter himself
