Puttin' On The Ritz

Album

Already

Label

RCA Records

Genre

Synthpop

Composer(s)

Irving Berlin

Entered Chart

Jun 25, 1983

Peak Date

Sep 3, 1983

Released

1982

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

RCA PB-13574

B-Side

Livin' In My Dream World

This was originally published in 1929 by legendary composer Irving Berlin ("God Bless America"). Harry Richman introduced it in the 1930 movie musical Puttin' on the Ritz and had a #1 hit. An alternate version with new lyrics became a hit for Fred Astaire in 1946 when he performed it in the movie Blue Skies. Taco pays homage to Astaire by including a tap-dance solo in the middle of the song. The expression "Puttin' On The Ritz" means to dress fashionably. The saying comes from the upscale Ritz-Carlton hotel company. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia to Dutch parents on July 21, 1955, Taco Ockerse (yes, it's his real name) was raised in Germany, where he studied dance and theater. He made a name for himself on the European supper-club circuit by dressing in formal attire and performing dance versions of American standards. This song was on his first album, and it became an unlikely hit when MTV picked up the video, which showcased Taco's distinctive look and performance that he had perfected in the supper-clubs. MTV didn't have many videos at the time, and this one had lavish costumes, a glowing cane and a tap dance sequence, making it very appealing to the fledgling network. >> The well-known version is about the upper-crust citizens of New York's glitzy Park Avenue, but the song has a racially charged backstory. In the 1930s it was fashionable for affluent white folks to go "slumming" in Harlem, a poor black neighborhood where the jazz scene was hot. The original lyrics, heard when the song was performed throughout that decade, reference the locals who pretended to be wealthy by donning their flashy duds (i.e. puttin' on the ritz) and hanging out on Lenox Avenue in Harlem: Have you seen the well-to-do Up on Lenox Avenue? On that famous thoroughfare, With their noses in the air? High hats and colored collars, White spats and fifteen dollars. Spending every dime For a wonderful time The story continues with Lulubelle hitting the town every Thursday (Lulubelle was a slang term for black maids and Thursdays were typically their nights off). The lyrics also mention the "Spangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns from down the levee." High browns refers to light-skinned African Americans. Another Berlin tune, "Let's Go Slumming on Park Avenue," flips the narrative and has Harlemites descending on the swank avenue to spy on the rich ("They do it, why can't we do it, too?"). Not everyone bought into the slumming fad, though. In the high society spoof "The Lady is a Tramp," the title lady refuses to go to Harlem driving "Lincolns or Fords" or dressing in "ermine and pearls." Taco's entire repertoire was comprised of older songs including some by jazz bandleader Glenn Miller and show tune writer George Gershwin. He played the role of "Chico" in a Marx Brothers stage show in Germany. Taco's follow-up album was also named after an Irving Berlin song he covered, "Let's Face the Music and Dance." He also did Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek." The year after this song was released, a cheesy TV show appeared called Puttin' On The Hits. In the show, a forebear to shows like Lip Sync Battle, contestants would lip-synch for prizes. It could only have happened in the '80s. In the 1974 Mel Brooks movie Young Frankenstein, there's a scene where Dr. Frankenstein (played by Gene Wilder) does a song-and-dance act to this song with his monster. The success of Taco's cover made 95-year-old Irving Berlin the oldest living songwriter ever with a single in the Top 10 of the Hot 100. Berlin was 101 when he died in 1989. In his first and only song-and-dance number, Clark Gable takes a crack at this in the 1939 movie Idiot's Delight. This appeared in the West German stage remake of West Side Story.

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Different types of wear all day coat pants
With stripes and cut away coats for perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trooper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super-duper

Come lets mix where Rockerfellers
Walk with sticks or umbrellas in their mits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Have you seen the well to do
Up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thorough fare
With their noses in the air
High hats and narrow collars
White spats and lots of 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 fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Different types of wear all day coat pants
With stripes and cut away coats for perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trooper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super-duper

Come lets mix where Rockerfellers
Walk with sticks or umbrellas in their mits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trooper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super-duper

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz

Down, down
Up, down
Get your kicks
Got the Ritz
Dine and wine but not till nine
The time is right for us tonight
We can move
Move to the rhythm
We can
Move
Dance to the rhythm
I want you to move


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 colored 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 sits
Puttin' on the ritz

Spangled gowns upon a bevy of high browns
From down the levee, all misfits
Puttin' on the ritz

That's where each and every Lulubelle goes
Every Thursday evening with her swell beaus
Rubbing elbows

Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee
And see them spend their last two bits
Puttin' on the ritz