You’re the Top

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga

At words poetic, I’m so pathetic

That I always have found it best

Instead of getting ’em off my chest

To let ’em rest unexpressed

I hate parading my serenading

As I’ll probably miss a bar

But if this ditty is not so pretty

At least it’ll tell you how great you are

You’re the top!

You’re the Coliseum

You’re the top!

You’re the Louvre Museum

You’re a melody from a symphony by Strauss

You’re a Bendel bonnet

A Shakespeare’s sonnet

You’re Mickey Mouse

You’re the Nile

You’re the Tower of Pisa

You’re the smile on the Mona Lisa

I’m a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop

But if, baby, I’m the bottom, you’re the top

You’re the top

You’re Mahatma Gandhi

You’re the top

You’re Napoleon Brandy

You’re the purple light

Of a summer night in Spain

You’re the National Gallery

You’re Garbo’s salary

You’re cellophane

You’re sublime

You’re a turkey dinner

You’re the time of a Derby winner

I’m a toy balloon that’s fated soon to pop

I’m a total wreck, a flop

I’m an option that no one picked up

But if, baby, I’m the bottom, you’re the top

Background

“You’re the Top” is a Cole Porter song from the 1934 musical “Anything Goes.” It is about a man and a woman who take turns complimenting each other. This version is from a jazz album titled “Love for Sale,” sung by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Bennett is a showman, a singer of show tunes and standards, the peer and equal of Frank Sinatra and Nat Cole. A volcano of diverse talents, Gaga is her own genre. Gaga’s humor flows easy and naturally in “You’re the Top,” as the singers salute one another as they cross paths one final time — one on the way up, and the other on the way down, in two remarkable careers intersected by a love for the standards.