Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black) as an admiring form of address.

a.1948

(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 40: You just don’t remember me, tops.

2. (orig. US, also the tops) the best, the ultimate, the winner; often as the tops in/for...

1933		Buckner ‘Ranch Diction of the Texas Panhandle’ in AS VIII:1 30: tops. The best. Often used figuratively; applied to persons and things.
1935		S. Kingsley Dead End Act III: Baby-face? Sure! He wuz a tops. Public enemy numbuh one.
1937		T. Thursday ‘Good Luck is No Good’ in Federal Agent Nov. 🌐 I’m tops in the racket.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 25: I ought to go down good in a place like the Chez Paris, tops here.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 23: ‘Kid, reforming a woman is tops in waste effort,’ he said. ‘You might as well try to build a house in a mirage.’.
1971		(con. 1930s) D. Wells Night People 59: Buddy was tops for gut-bucket.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 103: Rube Bloom’s ‘Don’t Worry About Me’ is still tops with the album makers.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 151: You’ll be spiffy in nothing less than suits, everything tops!
1982		W. Wharton Midnight Clear 86: The Jesuits, boy, they’re the tops.
1999		Guardian 28 June 3: As a parliamentarian he’s the tops.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 216: I read the entertainment business is tops for money.