Fred Astaire - Puttin' On The Ritz, 1930

[labikkinna]

Soothsayer0 and 240252 you two have given us all a history lesson, had no idea of all this , my thursday night's will never be the same, gona put on the ritz like a Lulu-Belle. Thank you for uploading and teaching us. Love and Peace

[M79609]

I dare you to sit still while listening to this...

[NateAAshby]

Doing this for a class.

[XenagogueVicene]

Nice illustrations.

[kumada84]

love the slideshow of random 30s-esque white people (including Halloween costumes?) when the entire song is making fun of black people from harlem. lol

[vidpro007]

Was, still, and will always be "THE MAN".

[Elisaunt]

@JC Jasion: You better beleive it. this is the ORIGINAL. Everything else is a copy.

[packardcaribien]

Fred's great, but he's got nothing on Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle.

I hope somebody gets the joke.

[JustLilOleMe01]

@packardcaribien LOL got it!

[aaaaasssss]

amazing song by an legendary singer, actor and dancer, entertainer.

Love him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EHASSEL001]

Sorry folks--the #1 version is by HARRY RICHMAn a broadway star!

[nokomarie1963]

You show good cultural understaning in your note, thanks.

[haloCE6]

bronies

[BORINGGULL]

@haloCE6 ew ponie

[haloCE6]

@BORINGGULL pony* you only put an ie if there is more then one

[BORINGGULL]

@haloCE6 yeah i know go away

[VictrolaJazz]

Tremendous!

[SatchmoSings]

What garbage can did you get this transfer out of?

[perfectjazz78]

@SatchmoSings Do you know anythin about 78s? This is actually a pretty good transfer.

[AugustoYeahBaby]

This version is much better than in Blue Skies - 1946

[WWIIace45]

@AugustoYeahBaby I know the lyrics in Blue Skies are the revised version cause the racial refrences had to be taken out

[RedHotJazzLover]

Fred Astaire gives the singular best vocal delivery here, above any and all others versions; though there are many grrreat bands playing many HOTTT arrangements . . .  ssssssssst!!

[theinsanelogic]

my gran remembers this song, she even checked vegas out in the 40's, i mean wow.

i love this kind of music! no remake could even come close.

[JBryllars]

Orchestra here is Leo Reisman

[cosgrove514]

My grandpa grew up with this version & I grew up with the one by Taco (The 80's rock band). In retrospect, however, this song sounds best as a classic showtune. I think my grandpa's generation had the right idea!

[jttalent]

NOT FRED ASTAIRE. Harry Richman.

[FigliaDellUragano]

80 years and counting this song has been around...

...and it blows the majority of modern songs out of the water.

Seriously, when it comes to "artists" like Justin Beiber and etc, they just can't compete with the classics.

[MidgetBuddie]

You lot actually make me laugh! Todays generation has completley changed! And im a tennager, i dont think any part of this song is racist....a phrase of it may have been racist when it first came out but words have changed now, to me the most racist words nowadays are 'honkys' and 'niggers'.....black people all call themsleves niggers as a laugh and white people call each other honkys as a laugh so who actually cares? Just be pleased that a teenager like myself loves this kkinda music

[177coc]

I love a lot Fred Astaire !

[Georgewos]

I didn't know Fred Astaire recorded this song in 1930. I only know the one he did with different lyrics in the 1946 Movie with Bing Skies "Blue Skies".

[fubukifangirl]

I like the newer version. I only like listening to this old music so I can fully appreciate how much better today's music is.

[ZombieNeurotoxin]

@fubukifangirl Go away. Older music was the best. In a choice between Fred Astaire and Justin Bieber, any sane person would say "Hey! I love Fred Astaire now!"

[fubukifangirl]

@ZombieNeurotoxin Yuck. Not only does older music all sound the same, but it's also racist.

[vonFelsenheim]

@fubukifangirl Hey. Each to their own, yes?

However, I think we must be careful when judging the broad opinions of people from before, say, the 1960s. My grandmother, born in 1912, was told as a child that if she was bad then a black man would get her. She realised, later in life, that logically this made no kind of sense at all. She told me she still couldn't help feeling nervous around black people though. Hard for anyone not to think the same, raised in that place and time.

[MidgetBuddie]

@fubukifangirl how is older music racist? I really dont know where you think its racist! Give me an example to back up your remark.

[familyreunion2011]

@fubukifangirl Just like rap and hip hop today in my opinion

[familyreunion2011]

@fubukifangirl Just like rap and hip hop today sound the same and is just as racist, in my opinion

[fubukifangirl]

@familyreunion2011 I don't listen to that either

[aquilonian]

accept it this is clearly talking about going to see poor black people dancing, in order to cheer yourself up. Not unlike todays clubs, except now you we have all colors, yay!.

[kallemick]

@aquilonian just like everyone else you missunderstand a song that was written in 1929............

[cstar1100]

Pure racism, back when it was acceptable.

[kallemick]

@cstar1100 it is NOT racist when will you fuckholes get it!? you missunderstand everything about old music!!!!!!

[URProductions]

Pure class. Like a lighting a smoke for a lady.

[rhaendel2]

What's the point to the seemingly random and meaningless lines "Boys look at that man puttin on that ritz ! You look at him, I can't." ?

[cstar1100]

@rhaendel2

The point of that was to say, "hey, look at those poor blacks,

spending all of their money on expensive clothing, trying to

imitate the white upper class".

[rhaendel2]

Is there a video of this version anywhere?

[winjasonwin]

I doubt it...it was 1930!

[u2control]

Taco must be rolling over his grave after hearing this!!! Taco sang it better and was BY FAR a better DANCER!!!

[Chopiano]

@u2control Why, he's not dead, you know...

[ILZ31989]

my favorite!

i love this favorite version!!!

[JensenAcklesFan891]

Very good!I love the pictures as well-it really reminds me of the 30s.I love this song also!its very very VERY GOOD!!

[ikevyoiPhone3G1996]

I never got tired of this song, good song

[Soulthinker2007]

I learn something everyday and I first heard that song back in the 1970's from a short movie.

[ikevyoiPhone3G1996]

They should have made a 1930 Vitaphone short called Puttin' on the Ritz starring Fred Astaire, cause today we could only here Fred Astaire dance to Puttin' on the Ritz in 1930, we can't see him dance to this song.

[doucefrance28]

Of course, who wouldn't love Puttin' On The Ritz!!!

And, I love the art of this era.

Would you mind telling me who the artists are at points, # 24, #52, #149, and #216???

I especially love the third illustration of the couple behind the automobile's steering wheel at point #24. Might it possibly have been the great Tamara De Lempicka???

Thanks.

[Gatakumo]

If any one knows of a insturmental of this, message me, PLEASE!!!!

[ikevyoiPhone3G1996]

Great song, nice pictures too. The Manhattan Cocktail poster looks nice it a shame that's a lost film today

[siddonstohell]

classy?

[kablamo9999]

I had no idea the original dated this far back! Cool.

[soothsayer0]

this original version of the song also contains the following references:

Lennox Avenue - A main thoroughfare in Harlem.

High browns - A variation of the phrase "high yellow", referring to

someone of mixed racial background, usually with the inference that

they're putting on airs beyond their social station.

Lulu-Belle - A generic nickname for a black maid.

Ev'ry Thursday evening - Typically, the maid's night off.

[lyrics and references, lyricsplayground - com]

[davethomas1944]

@soothsayer0 very interesting comments, I've heard this one for years and always thought it referred to rich types who had lost everything in the great depression. Now hearing the lyric "spend their last two bits" also makes sense as well.

[DRpokeme]

@soothsayer0 Thank you for that explaination..

[semafore]

When Irving Berlin first wrote this song it was about the fashionable prohibition era practice of "slumming". Wealthy whites would go to Harlem speakeasies to soak up the atmosphere and ogle black people promenading on Lenox Avenue. The lines about "watch them spend their last two bits/puttin' on that Ritz" played upon the stereotype that African-Americans had poor money management skills. Later, Berlin changed the lyrics to something less offensive and moved the locale to Park Ave.

[JCJasion]

They cleaned the racism out of the lyrics for Astaire's 1950's recording of this song.

You know, listening to him begin his last vocal chorus in this recording, I wonder if he'd already been listening to Cab Calloway belt out tunes in his own inimitable high-pitched manner. I wonder what a Calloway version of this tune would have sounded like, with his back-up band, The Missourians, lending a thumping, frenetic accompaniment. Crazeeee!!!!

[JCJasion]

Taco can just hang it up. This version is the genuine article.

[Juliaflo]

@JCJasion You said it.

[JCJasion]

@Juliaflo - A fantasy of mine - How would have this sounded if CAB CALLOWAY recorded and sang this in 1930? I'm thinking he'd be screeching up and down the scale, totally bonkers and out of control sounding. I'd have loved to have heard that level of abandon. I'm sure he sang this song in live performance at the time. Wonder if he would have used the Jim Crow lyrics though. Ahhh historical speculation.

[TheGunslinger5854]

@JCJasion Cab Calloway was a much better singer and probably a better dancer than Harry Richman. The fact that he was still singing almost 50 years later is a testament to his talent. Sad to think some peoples only exposure to him was in the Blues Brothers movie. But at least he left us with a great version of Minnie the Moocher, you have to love the white tuxedo and the camera tricks. HI DE HI DE HI DE HI DE HO!!! and a Scoodley boo to you too !!!!!!!!!!!!

[JCJasion]

@TheGunslinger5854 - That's right!!!! He WAS a dancer. Imagine the his 'cantor's wail" along with the proto "moonwalk" that he did back then. You've just made my fantasy more vivid. Of course, another fantasy would involve BILL ROBINSON singing and dancing this number. And I'm SURE he MUST HAVE done it!!!

[HewbertLarzToast]

@JCJasion The real McCoy, as it were.

[balogo2009]

Has the same tune as Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

[SpankRamen2]

Almost, but not quite. Perhaps this was the inspiration for "Istanbul"!

[kaitlynwilkins]

my jam song buttin on da ritz with butter

[camolanphy]

And in the final verse "Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee / And see them spend their last two bits", who exactly is spending their last 2 bits: the swells or the wanna-bes? Is this a nihilistic Depression song or a very clever biting 1920's criticism of white excesses and careless racism? 1929 is on the cusp, so it could be both...

[camolanphy]

The lyrics to this song are a puzzle within a riddle to me... at first it seems as if Berlin is lampooning the Harlemites who are dressing above their income and station (the "spangled gowns" are "all misfits"), but then it seems as if he's pointing a finger at the swells who were slumming it in Harlem in order to feel as if they were hep: "Have you seen the well-to-do upon Lenox Avenue?" (or is this more mockery of the harlemites, acting as if they are "well-to-do"?)

[Desimodontidae]

I wish $15 could still buy a wonderful time...

[garfunkelgrl]

yeah, hookers just aren't what they used to be. :D j/k.

[merrihew]

Seems like he's trying to copy Harry Richman's style on this one. Good but not in the same league as his later records.

[genia106]

PERFECT NEW YORK SONG!

Grzegorz, I see Fred dancing down Broadway in his tails like a Pied Piper and all the SWELLS dressed to the NINES coming out of all the Clubs and dancing right behind him similar to a Grand Sophisticated Conga Line in a SPECTACULAR Busby Berkley movie. I love it!

[beeswaxer]

love the music and the pictures thanks and i loved fred his dancing was great

[bill3murr]

yes and terrific. it's all sooo good. thanks.

[dzheger]

Love this classic -- even as a spoof in the movie "Young Frankenstein". I like the photo of the platform shoe (may be because I could use extra 6" :) )

[barbcard]

A very jaunty nihilism indeed. You also evoke memories of when I used to drink "Manhattans"--the de rigeur cocktail for young women back when I was in college.