DESCRIPTION:
Happy Birthday Ella! "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. The best selling version was Paul Whiteman's Victor single, which made the top five.
It was the most popular song from Anything Goes at the start with hundreds of parodies.

The lyrics are particularly significant because they offer a snapshot as to what was highly prized in the mid-1930s, and demonstrate Porter's rhyming ability.
Some of the lyrics were re-written by P. G. Wodehouse for the British version of Anything Goes.

Recorded February 9, 1956, Capitol Studios, Hollywood, Ca. (Verve Records)

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 Colosseum.
You're the top! You're the Louvre Museum.
You're the 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 Tow'r 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 a Waldorf salad.
You're the top! You're a Berlin ballad.
You're the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire.
You're an O'Neal 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 a lazy lout who is just about to stop.
But if baby I'm the bottom,
you're the top!