NRR Project: 'You're the Top' (1934)

 

NRR Project: ‘You’re the Top’

Words and music: Cole Porter

Performed by Cole Porter

Recorded Oct. 26, 1934

What can you say about a genius? To possess the gifts that make it possible to write things that  are impossible to forget is unexplainable, incapable of being reproduced.

In terms of songwriting, there are only a few songsmiths who handled their music and their lyrics entirely by themselves: Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser, Stephen Sondheim. Cole Porter is in that distinguished company.

Porter’s story is not that of the struggling young immigrant, as was the case with many of his contemporaries. He was born to wealth and position in the Midwest, and went to Yale. However, instead of law school he pursued music, writing songs prolifically. He continued to live in affluence throughout his life. Such was his financial condition that he could relentlessly practice his craft.

As he worked on shows and created songs, he also married, despite the fact that he was gay. At the time, homosexuality was considered, at best, a mortal sin. Fortunately, he found a friend and companion in his wife, and they lived happily together for decades even as they found romantic satisfaction with others.

“You’re the Top” is a “list” song, much in the same vein as his “I Get a Kick Out of You.” Here the beloved is compared to a long recitation of superlatives, including Mickey Mouse, Garbo’s salary, and the Mona Lisa. It’s a bright and bubbly tune that does what great songwriting of the time was so good at: making a singable, memorable statement about love. It has the giddy forward rush of the burst of enthusiasm that comes with romantic passion.

This recording is of just Porter at the piano, playing his song. One can easily imagine him entertaining guests at a cosmopolitan cocktail party, high above the urban jungle. Here is the realm of bright thoughts brightly expressed.

Porter just got better and better, culminating in musicals such as Kiss Me, Kate and Silk Stockings. His many decades of songwriting gave singers and lovers exciting new, witty ways to share their feelings.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Huey Long speaks.