You're romance

While enjoying a cruise on Germany's Rhine River, Cole Porter polled fellow guests on their favorite people, places and things, managing to include an astonishing number of their answers in his song, You're the Top. The song was included in the 1934 Broadway musical Anything Goes, but its singular popularity grew and is perhaps Porter's most beloved work. Eighty years later, many versions have been fashioned, performed by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and others. The original lyrics have only a few items respective to the 1930's (Garbo's salary, Arrow collars, Mrs. Astor) assuring its timelessness.

The 1934 recording of Cole Porter singing You're the Top (also playing piano).

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 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,
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top!
You're an Arrow collar
You're the top!
You're a Coolidge dollar,
You're the nimble tread
Of the feet of Fred Astaire,
You're an O'Neill drama,
You're Whistler's mama!
You're Camembert.

You're a rose,
You're Inferno's Dante,
You're the nose
On the great Durante.
I'm just in a way,
As the French would say, "de trop".
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top!
You're a Waldorf salad.
You're the top!
You're a Berlin ballad.
You're a baby grand of a lady and a gent,
You're an old Dutch master,
You're Mrs. Astor,
You're Pepsodent.

You're romance,
You're the steppes of Russia,
You're the pants, on a Roxy usher,
I'm a lazy lout, who's just about to stop,

But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!