"Thou Swell" is a show tune, a popular song and a jazz standard.
The music was written by Richard Rodgers, with words by Lorenz Hart, for the 1927 musical A Connecticut Yankee. There are jazz vocal renditions by Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Blossom Dearie, Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Williams. Fats Waller and Billy May both recorded the song instrumentally.
An instrumental version was recorded in Oslo on April 29, 1954 by "Verden Rundt's" All Star Band (Rowland Greenberg (trp) - A. Skjold (trombone) - K. Stokke (alt) - K. Bergheim (tenor) - Knut Hyrum (baritone) - I. Børsum (bass) - Scott Lunde (piano) - K. O. Hoff (drums)). Arranger and conductor: Egil Monn-Iversen. It was released on the 78 rpm record Musica RA-9005. The B-side was "Perdido".
The lyric is notable, as indicated by the title, for its mix of old English and modern slang.
The music of the song is featured in the film All About Eve (1950). It is played on the piano at the party when Margo tells her friends to "fasten their seat belts".
Famous quotes containing the words thou and/or swell:
“Then tell, O! tell, how thou didst murder me.”
—Thomas Campion (1567–1620)
“...I didn’t come to this with any particular cachet. I was just a person who grew up in the United States. And when I looked around at the people who were sportscasters, I thought they were just people who grew up in the United States, too. So I thought, Why can’t a woman do it? I just assumed everyone else would think it was a swell idea.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 85 (June 17, 1991)