Thou Swell is a 1927 show tune written by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Lorenz Hart for the Broadway musical A Connecticut Yankee, based on Mark Twain. The original performers were William Gaxton and Constance Carpenter, and the lyric mixes archaic English with modern slang as the story shifts between King Arthur’s court and contemporary times. An early recording featured The Broadway Nitelites conducted by Ben Selvin with Franklyn Baur (Columbia, 1928). The tune has become a jazz and pop standard with many notable renditions, including Blossom Dearie (1957), Nat King Cole, The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart (1967), Bing Crosby (At My Time of Life, 1976), Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, and Joe Williams. Instrumental versions were recorded by Bix Beiderbecke with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, among others. It appears in the 1948 MGM film Words and Music with June Allyson, and its mood echoes in All About Eve (1950) during a party scene. The song showcases Rodgers rhythmic inventiveness and Hart’s clever, contrasting diction.
