It has come to my attention that there are those who will deny the unstoppable pop genius that is the Black Eyed Peas’ international megahit “I Gotta Feeling.”
I want to speak only about the line “Fill up my cup — mazel tov!” Amazing. Amazing! You start with “fill up my cup” — which at this moment in the song reads as a cup of beer at a party or maybe even a cup (glass?) of champagne at a sophisticated nightclub. And then with just two words the song pulls aside the curtain and says — you are at a bar mitzvah. Look to your left — the man dancing there is 75. Look to your right — the girl dancing there is 12. Look down at the cup — it’s a kiddush cup.
It’s a moment of incredible self-knowledge and assurance: the band saying: We’re here for one reason, and that’s to outdo “Celebration,” and write the greatest wedding/barmitzvah song ever made. If you’re listening to this at a bar mitzvah, this is your song. And if you actually are listening to this while drinking champagne at a sophisticated nightclub, guess what — you’re dancing to the same song as the septuagenarians in the Marriott Ballroom 3, and you can’t stop yourself.
I know of nothing like it in contemporary pop music. Like oh my God.
No need to link to this much-heard song, so here’s Spongebob singing it.
I have not even spoken of the poignancy of the closing “Do it again” refrain — partly because I’m not sure it’s actually supposed to be poignant. It might just be that it reminds me of the Kinks song:
