Tea for Two is a song by Vincent Youmans, with lyrics by Irving Caesar, written for the 1924 musical No, No, Nanette. Youmans had the basic melody while in the navy during World War I and later developed it in Chicago into a song for the hero to sing to the heroine. Introduced in May 1924 by Phyllis Cleveland and John Barker during the Chicago pre-Broadway run, it became a hit on Broadway, where Louise Groody and Barker's duet was a success, and it became the biggest of Youmans's career.
The song has a verse followed by a refrain in A1-A2-A3-B form, and was originally in A-flat major. Its melody is rhythmically repetitive, simple yet charming, with a range of just over an octave. Marion Harris's 1924 recording reached number one on the US Billboard chart in January 1925 and stayed there for 11 weeks. Art Tatum's 1939 recording received a posthumous Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and Tommy Dorsey's 1958 version reached number three in the UK. Covered by Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Bud Powell and Sinatra, among many others, it is a jazz standard and a popular music standard. Edith Bouvier Beale sings it in Grey Gardens (1975).
