It's a world gone mad as Gaga, Bennett duet on 'Goes'

It's safe to say that anything goes in Lady Gaga's world, where slabs of meat become dresses and giant eggs are modes of transportation.

Always one to keep her Little Monsters guessing, the eccentric singer is trading in her provocative pop melodies for the Great American Songbook, teaming with close friend Tony Bennett for an album of jazz standards called Cheek to Cheek, out Sept. 23. The first song off the album, Anything Goes, goes on sale at iTunes Tuesday.

Gaga is no stranger to the Cole Porter classic, covered by Bennett more than 50 years ago on his 1959 album Strike Up the Band and introduced to the pop sensation as a 13-year-old, when she began performing jazz. "I'm familiar with all the songs in the Great American Songbook, but we thought that this song was so much fun and we love singing it together," she says of the duet. "It's got this real sexy, powerful vibe to it, and it's just because we're having fun singing it."

Recorded over the past two years amid Gaga's Artpop release last November and ongoing ArtRave world tour, the set has been highly anticipated since the duo collaborated on the sultry The Lady Is a Tramp, off Bennett's Grammy Award-winning 2011 album Duets II. The pair has dropped numerous hints about what to expect: They performed together recently at Montreal Jazz Festival and New York's Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, and Gaga posted studio snapshots to Instagram, captioned "Studio Rattin' with the Bennett Boys" and "It's a Standard night #CheekToCheek."

Gaga and Bennett will promote the new album with a PBS Great Performances concert special, Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek LIVE!, filmed in New York Monday night and slated to air Oct. 24. "The reason I chose to do (this project) with her is to show how wonderful she really sings," Bennett says. "She's so uninhibited and talented, and has a wonderful talent of knowing how to improvise very well. She's really a great American singer."

The admiration is mutual between Gaga, 28, and Bennett, who turns 88 next week. "There might be 60 years between me and Tony, but there's no distance between us when we sing jazz," says Gaga, who praises the crooner as a true gentleman. "He calls me 'Lady,' and when I walk in the room, he stands up and so do all his friends.

"It's really of another time, and I hope with this music we can bring back that sentiment of love, kindness and joy that I'm getting to experience working with him every day. I just want to spread that around the world."