Coquette is a 1928 fox trot jazz standard composed by Johnny Green and Carmen Lombardo with lyrics by Gus Kahn. The first recording was by the Broadway Bell-Hops in early 1928, with a release that April. The tune became a hit for Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, featuring Carmen Lombardo on vocals, in 1928, and it has since been recorded by many artists including Paul Whiteman, the Dorsey Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt with Stephane Grappelli, Fats Domino, Nat King Cole, and Paul McCartney on his 1999 Run Devil Run album. The song tells of a flirtatious heartbreaker, a coquette, with the famous line Tell me why you keep fooling, little coquette. Coquette has appeared in film, notably in Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934), and remains a staple of early jazz and swing—frequently performed in both traditional fox trot and gypsy jazz settings.
