“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][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.
. . . You’re the Top . . .
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: Lady Astor,[3][4]Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, or Ellen Tuck French[5]
- 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. (U.S. Republican Party)
- Zuider Zee
- Broccoli (which had only recently become well known in the US)
- Ritzhot 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 Vallee
- 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“[6][7]
. . . You’re the Top . . .