"Puttin' On the Ritz" is a song written by Irving Berlin. He wrote it in May 1927 and first published it on December 2, 1929.[1] It was registered as an unpublished song on August 24, 1927 and again on July 27, 1928.[1] It was introduced by Harry Richman and chorus in the musical film Puttin' On the Ritz (1930). According to The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin, this was the first song in film to be sung by an interracial ensemble.[1] The title derives from the slang expression "to put on the Ritz", meaning to dress very fashionably. This expression was inspired by the opulent Ritz Hotel in London.
Hit phonograph records of the tune in its original period of popularity of 1929–1930 were recorded by Harry Richman and by Fred Astaire, with whom the song is particularly associated. Every other record label had their own version of this popular song (Columbia, Brunswick, Victor, and all of the dime store labels). Richman's Brunswick version of the song became the number-one selling record in America.[1]
The song received renewed popularity in 1974 when it was performed by Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in the film Young Frankenstein. Their version of "Puttin' On the Ritz" was ranked 84th in the American Film Institute's 2004 list, 100 Years...100 Songs. In 1982, Taco, a Dutch musician, recorded and released a modernized version of the song. Accompanied by a music video that aired on MTV and other music video networks, Taco's cover became a Top 10 hit in the United States, Canada, and much of Europe. Kenny Yarbrough also recorded a cover of the song; this version was used as theme music for the short-lived 1991 sitcom Top of the Heap.
Musical structure
The song is in AABA form, with a verse.[2] According to John Mueller, the central device in the A section is the "use of delayed rhythmic resolution: a staggering, off-balance passage, emphasized by the unorthodox stresses in the lyric, suddenly resolves satisfyingly on a held note, followed by the forceful assertion of the title phrase." The marchlike B section, which is only barely syncopated, acts as a contrast to the previous rhythmic complexities.[2]Alec Wilder, in his study of American popular song, stated that the song's rhythmic pattern is "the most complex and provocative I have ever come upon."[2]
Lyrics
Clark Gable performs "Puttin' On the Ritz" in Idiot's Delight (1939)
The original version of Berlin's song included references to the then-popular fad of flashily dressed but poor blackHarlemites parading up and down Lenox Avenue, "Spending ev'ry dime / For a wonderful time". In the United Kingdom, the song was popularized through the BBC's radio broadcasts of Joe Kaye's Band performing it at The Ritz Hotel, London restaurant in the 1930s.[3]
Original lyrics
Have you seen the well to do
Up on Lenox Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air?
High hats and Arrow collars
White spats and fifteen dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time
If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where Harlem flits?
Puttin' on the Ritz
Spangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns
From down the levy, all misfits
Puttin' on the Ritz
That's where each and every lulu-belle goes
Every Thursday evening with her swell beaus
Rubbin' elbows
Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee
And see them spend their last two bits
Puttin' on the Ritz
If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where Harlem flits?
Puttin' on the Ritz
Spangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns
From down the levy, all misfits
Puttin' on the Ritz
The song was featured with the original lyrics in the 1939 film Idiot's Delight, where it was performed by Clark Gable and chorus, and this routine was selected for inclusion in That's Entertainment (1974). Columbia released a 78 recording of Fred Astaire singing the original lyrics in May 1930[4][deprecated source] (B-side – "Crazy Feet", both recorded on March 26, 1930). For the film Blue Skies (1946), where it was performed by Fred Astaire, Berlin revised the lyrics to apply to affluent whites strutting "up and down Park Avenue".[1][A] This second version was published after being registered for copyright on August 28, 1946.[1]
Taco version
"Puttin' On the Ritz"
One of variants of the international picture sleeve
In 1982, singer Taco released a synth-popcover version of "Puttin' On the Ritz" as a single from his album After Eight,[5] released in Europe on Polydor and by RCA in the US. The single was accompanied by a music video, the original version of which contains characters in blackface and has since been banned from many networks.[6] An alternative version eliminates many shots of the blackface characters, though some remain.
The single was a global hit, reaching No. 1 on Cash Box[8] as well as No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart,[9] making Irving Berlin, then 95, the oldest ever living songwriter to have one of his compositions enter the top ten.[10] It was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over one million copies.[11] It was Taco's only hit in the United States.[5] This version of the song was ranked No. 53 in VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s special.[12]
The song topped the charts in Sweden and New Zealand, and entered the top 5 in numerous countries including Australia, Norway, Austria, and Canada.[13][14][15][16]
^"In the original version it told of the ritzy airs of Harlemites parading up and down Lenox Avenue. For the 1946 film, the strutters became well-to-do whites on Park Avenue. The patronizing, yet admiring, satire of the song is shifted, then, and mellowed in the process. The change may have had to do with a growing awareness that stereotypical portrayal of minorities is offensive."[2]
