I Know That You Know is a show tune composed by Vincent Youmans with lyrics by Anne Caldwell, written for the 1926 Broadway musical Oh, Please!, where it was introduced by the comic actress Beatrice Lillie. The melody is built on a compact range using repeated adjacent notes that generate high energy and rhythmic insistence, with a distinctive heavily accented fourth beat tied into the following measure that gives the tune a driving, theatrical propulsion. The wide intervals between notes make it more naturally suited to instrumental performance than singing, and it became a favorite vehicle for jazz improvisers. The tune charted at number five in 1927 via Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra and returned to the charts at number fourteen in 1936 with the Benny Goodman Orchestra's swing arrangement. Among the most celebrated jazz recordings are Jimmie Noone's early version featuring a fiery Earl Hines piano solo, Art Tatum's whirlwind 1949 live performance at the Just Jazz Concert in Pasadena, and Nat King Cole's 1956 vocal rendition with Stuff Smith from the After Midnight Sessions. The tune has attracted performances from an impressive range of artists including Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Lester Young, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, and Stan Kenton. On AllSolos, it appears on the 1957 album Sonny Side Up, where Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Stitt each take extended solos on this hard-swinging vehicle.
