When did Puttin on the Ritz come out?

"Puttin' On the Ritz" is a popular ballad. It was written by Irving Berlin. He wrote this song in May 1927. It was first published in December 1929. The song lyrics tell people that if they are feeling blue they should go "where fashion sits" and "put on the Ritz." "The Ritz" most likely refers to the Ritz Tower at 465 Park Avenue, New York City. This is a luxury residential building originally built as an apartment hotel just before this song was written. Fred Astaire first sang the song.

In the early 1980s, Taco released a synthpop euro disco-style version of "Puttin' On the Ritz" in 1981 by RCA Records and Peer Studios. His performance consisted of song and tap. It hit #4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.[1]

References[change | change source]

1. ↑ "Puttin' On the Ritz". Billboard. Retrieved Mar 22, 2015.

Songfacts®:

• This was originally written 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. It famously 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. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Rob - Jemseg, NB

• 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.

When did Puttin on the Ritz first come out?

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Did Irving Berlin wrote Puttin on the Ritz?