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, plays a version of the classic “Puttin’ On the Ritz,” one that is most commonly heard dressed up as a bouncing synth-pop hit. However, the tune “Puttin’ On the Ritz” has origins planted in a time well before its ’80s counterpart was splashed across MTV. So where and who did the song come from?
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Who Wrote It?
“Puttin’ On the Ritz” was written and published in the late 1920s by famed composer Irving Berlin, known for enduring musical masterpieces like “White Christmas,” “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”
The tune drew inspiration from the phrase “to put on the Ritz,” which meant to dress up, and pull out all the stops to look as luxurious and as high society as the famed Ritz Hotel from which the expression itself took inspiration.
The song was first used in the 1930 musical of the same name. Vocalists like Harry Richman and Fred Astaire were among the first to record the tune and it has seen innumerable renditions by dozens of artists since. One re-imagining in particular put the song back at the top more than 50 years after its release.
Taco Version
The Indonesia-born Dutch entertainer known mononymously as Taco recorded a loose cover of “Puttin’ On the Ritz” in 1982, releasing the synth-pop rendition as his debut single. “At that time, I composed and sang rock, soul, and blues songs,” the artist explained in an interview. “To get away from the German pop image, I had to come up with a radical new image. And with the new electro-pop movement, I combined the American songbook with new wave beats which found very little acceptance when it was first released.”
By 1983, however, the song was a global success and had put Berlin and his classic tune back at the top once again.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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