I Get a Kick Out of You

The tempo here is almost mischievous — a light-footed swing that bounces rather than struts, the rhythm section keeping things airy and conversational. Porter's lyric is a catalog of extravagant pleasures deployed as metaphors for desire, and both singers understand that the joke is entirely the point: love is described through champagne, cocaine, and aviation, which is either absurd or perfectly logical depending on your mood. Gaga's delivery here is more playful than anywhere else in their collaborative catalog — she lets syllables elongate and snap back like elastic, clearly delighting in the wordplay. Bennett responds with the seasoned ease of someone who has performed this song long enough to find new corners in it and then graciously shares those corners with his partner. The brass arrangement swings low and loose, the kind of big-band writing that makes you involuntarily tap your foot even if you are actively trying not to. There is real joy here, unironic and unguarded, which is rarer than it seems. The song belongs to the tradition of American popular music that understood silliness and sophistication to be the same thing when deployed with enough commitment. Play this at a dinner party when the food is good and someone has just opened a second bottle of wine — it will make the room feel briefly like a more elegant version of itself.