"TEA FOR TWO" (1924)

It could be said that Boston Red Sox fans got "Tea for Two" in exchange for Babe Ruth. Harry Frazee, owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1916 to 1923, sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $100,000 in December of 1919 and used the proceeds to finance his non-musical stage play called My Lady Friends that opened on Broadway in the same month. The musical No, No, Nanette, which introduced "Tea for Two," originated from that play. It has been disputed whether or not Frazee actually did sell Ruth to finance his theatrical productions, but sportswriter and author Leigh Montville’s research for his book, The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth, indicated that the play was indeed financed directly from the sale of Ruth. Since Red Sox fans blamed the near demise of their franchise on this transaction, labeling it "the curse of the Bambino" and holding it responsible for what became an 86-year World Series drought, they probably wouldn’t feel better knowing that their slugger was sold for a song.
Frazee’s transaction may have cursed the Red Sox, but it brought him nothing but success with his production of No, No, Nanette. During its pre-Broadway run in Chicago, the show was so popular it played there for over a year. Consequently, when the show opened on Broadway in September of 1925, its songs already were well known, with "Tea for Two" entering the pop charts three times that year. In January a recording by The Benson Orchestra of Chicago entered the charts at #5. The same month, a recording by Marion Harris peaked at #1 and held that spot for three weeks. The song charted a third time with Ben Bernie and His Orchestra, reaching #10. It made four more trips to the charts: the Ipana Troubadours (1930, #15); Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra (1937, instrumental, #18); Art Tatum (1939, instrumental, #18); and Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, led by Warren Covington (1958, as "Tea for Two Cha Cha", instrumental, #7).
During the 1920s Vincent Youmans, composer of "Tea for Two," had achieved the same celebrity status as George Gershwin and Richard Rodgers. William Zinsser in his book Easy to Remember describes Youmans’ songwriting style: "What gives Youmans’ songs their tremendous energy is their small range. Unlike Jerome Kern and other composers whose melodies rise and fall over a long trajectory, Youmans generally uses only a few adjacent notes. Even in the bridge he feels no compulsion to seek variety. "Tea for Two" doesn’t have a bridge at all – it merely restates the theme in a higher key and then returns to the original key..." Zinsser goes on to say, "By all the laws of music these songs should be monotonous. But they’re full of life. Their very repetitiveness propels them forward, giving them a nervous momentum that’s as characteristic of the 1920s as Gershwin’s early numbers from the same period..." Youmans’ early death from tuberculosis and limited song legacy have caused his name to be less well recognized today.
In the Poets of Tin Pan Alley Philip Furia relates how the lyrics for "Tea for Two" came to be written: "One night in 1924, so the story goes, composer Vincent Youmans came up with a melody so enthralling he got his lyricist, Irving Caesar, out of bed and begged him to put words to it. To placate Youmans (and to get back to sleep) Caesar quickly tossed off a "dummy lyric," promising to write the real one in the morning. But the next morning Caesar and Youmans looked at the dummy lyric again and decided to keep it, even though the title phrase was never repeated – a clear violation of the Alley’s axiom that "a good lyric" was "one that states the title promptly and then keeps stating it so that the public will remember it when shopping for records and sheet music." Initially, Caesar wasn’t thrilled with his dummy lyric, telling Youmans "It stinks," but Youmans liked it so much that he refused to allow Caesar to change a word of it. "Tea for Two" did become one of the most popular songs of the 1920s, but Zinsser seems to agree with Caesar, suggesting that the song’s success occurred in spite of its lyrics. He writes, "‘Tea for Two’ is a triumph of music over words that are little short of hilarious. Irving Caesar, who claimed that the lyric took him only five minutes, died in 1996 at the age of 101 and was quoted in his obituary as saying, ‘Sometimes I write lousy, but always fast.’"
As other songwriters frequently have done, Caesar appropriated a common expression for the song's hook phrase; "tea for two" originated as an 18th century English street vendor’s cry. When vendors wished to attract business, they would lower the price of a pot of tea from three pence to two pence and call out "tea for two." By the 19th century, when a Victorian lady and gentleman would meet in the afternoon for tea, ordering "tea for two" often signaled an early stage of courtship, and the expression came to be associated with romance.
"Tea for Two" evolved from what writer Alec Wilder termed "a superior pop song" into a jazz standard mainly because of pianist Art Tatum. His famed association with the song began in 1931 when as a young musician he bested James P. Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and Fats Waller, the leading stride pianists of the time, in a cutting contest. (From the 1920s through the 1940s the term cutting contest signified a musical competition between stride piano players in which they would attempt to outplay each other.) Born in Toledo, Ohio, Tatum was a newcomer to the New York City jazz scene, and Fats Waller, deciding it was time for his baptism by fire, set up the cutting contest. James Lester’s biography of Art Tatum, Too Marvelous for Words, provides a description by Maurice Waller, the son of Fats Waller, of Tatum’s playing that night: "Art played the main theme of Vincent Youmans’ big hit, "Tea for Two," and introduced his inventive harmonies, slightly altering the melodic line. Good, but not very impressive. Then it happened. Tatum’s left hand worked a strong, regular beat while his right hand played dazzling arpeggios in chords loaded with flatted fifths and ninths. Both his hands raced toward each other in skips and runs that seemed impossible to master. Then they crossed each other. Tatum played the main theme again and then soared to an exciting climax." Lester describes how the other pianists were stunned by Tatum’s virtuosity; he was the undisputed winner of the contest. James P. Johnson said, "When Tatum played "Tea for Two" that night, I guess that was the first time I ever heard it really played." Fats Waller recalled the night with the following observation: "That Tatum, he was just too good. ...He had too much technique. When that man turns on the powerhouse, don’t no one play him down. He sounds like a brass band."
"Tea for Two" was Art Tatum’s first solo recording, made in 1933 for Brunswick Records. However, it was his 1939 recording on the Decca Records label that brought "Tea for Two" into the Jazz repertory; the record was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1986. On that legendary recording, Tatum’s use of substitute chords and his complete transformation of the third chorus would have a deep and lasting effect on the way jazz pianists improvise. Critic Scott Yanow at Allmusic.com writes, "...all pianists have to deal to a certain extent with Tatum's innovations in order to be taken seriously. ...Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists." One of those pianists was the great Oscar Peterson. Jazzstandards.com quotes jazz historian Joe Mosbrook, who tells how Peterson first met Tatum at Val’s in the Alley, a club in Cleveland, Ohio: [Peterson recounts,] "We had a beer or two and I said, `Hey, man, I’d like to hear you play!’ Tatum said, `You play first.’" Peterson said he was young and eager, so he did. "When I finished, Tatum told me, ‘Hey, I like your style very much.’" Tatum asked him what he wanted to hear. Peterson said, "Something like ‘Tea For Two.’" "I couldn’t believe what I was hearing," said Peterson, "I’m about six foot four and I was leaning against the piano and my legs just went to water. By the time he got through three more numbers, I couldn’t take it anymore..."
Click on this link to hear Art Tatum play "Tea for Two": http://www.rhapsody.com/art-tatum/art-tatum-solo-masterpieces-vol-2/tea-for-two/lyrics.html