Thou Swell
Thou Swell is a pop song written by Richard Rodgers (music) and Lorenz Hart (text) and published in 1927.
background
The song by the Rodgers and Hart songwriting team was written for the musical comedy A Connecticut Yankee , based on Mark Twain's book A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur (1889). The play had its premiere on November 2, 1927 in New York's Vanderbilt Theater; was presented Thou Swell by William Gaxtob and Constance Carpenter . Another well-known song from the piece was My Heart Stood Still . It was performed in London in 1929 under the title A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur , with Vivienne Segal in the lead role.
The "high-spirited," "in a discharged Tempo" to be played song is in F major in the form ABA'B '/ A written. Lorenz Hart's lyrics mix contemporary and old English allusions like Woulst kiss me pretty? , Hear me holler and Thou swell . Syncopations were predominant in the melody of the song , while the words I choose a sweet lollapaloosa in thee show ragtime influence . In his book The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Great Lyricists , Philip Furia said, “'A Connecticut Yankee' gave Hart an ideal starting point for undermining the sentimentality of rhymes of antiquated diction with modern slang. Like Mark Twain, who mixed mixed Western slang with medieval archaisms in the book , Hart jumped back and forth between linguistic extremes in songs like 'Thou Swell'. "
First recordings and later cover versions
The first musicians to record the song in the United States from December 1927 included Johnny Johnson / Jack Teagarden (Victor), Willard Robison ( Pathé ), the Louisiana Sugar Babes (Victor, with Jabbo Smith , Garvin Bushell , James P. Johnson , Fats Waller ), Bix Beiderbecke (OKeh), in England Bert Ambrose . The most successful in the US was Ben Selvin's recording for Columbia Records , which was in the US charts for seven weeks in 1928 and reached # 10.
The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 327 (as of 2015) cover versions in the field of jazz ; The recordings are particularly noteworthy. a. by Dorothy Ashby , Joanne Brackeen , Betty Carter / Ray Bryant , Nat King Cole , George Coleman , Blossom Dearie , Dorothy Donegan , Ella Fitzgerald , Stan Getz , Bobby Hackett , Roland Hanna , Stacey Kent , John Lewis / Lester Young , Billy May , Rob McConnell , Charlie Parker , Oscar Peterson , Bud Shank , Horace Silver , Billy Taylor , Wesla Whitfield , Joe Williams and Sarah Vaughan .