Sunday, July 01, 2012

Puttin' on the Ritz in Russia

Irving Berlin in 1906

Irving Berlin, one of America's greatest songwriters, died in 1989 at the age of 101, but he seems to live on in Russia, where he was born in 1888. Or perhaps he is rather brought again to life in this video of a Russian flash mob dancing to the words and music of Puttin' on the Ritz, adapted for their purposes, on Sunday, February 26, 2012 at about 1:15 in the afternoon to celebrate a wedding:
So 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 who wear a daycoat, pants with stripes
And cut away coats, perfect fits,
Puttin' on the ritz.

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to be like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks
Or umbrellas in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to be like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks
Or umbrellas in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

So 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 who wear a daycoat, pants with stripes
And cut away coats, perfect fits,
Puttin' on the ritz.

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to be like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks
Or umbrellas in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

So 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 who wear a daycoat, pants with stripes
And cut away coats, perfect fits,
Puttin' on the ritz.

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to be like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks
Or umbrellas in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to be like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks
Or umbrellas in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

Puttin' on the Ritz

Puttin' on the Ritz

Puttin' on the Ritz

Puttin' on the Ritz

Puttin' on the Ritz

Puttin' on the Ritz
Those are the words to the video, or at least what I seem to have heard. If you haven't seen the video, click on it and watch. You'll be uplifted! Maybe the dancers were paid for the performance, but they seem to be enjoying themselves immensely.

For five minutes and forty-one seconds, I felt that we live in a beautiful, wondrous world . . .

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4 Comments:

At 1:22 PM, Blogger Kevin Kim said...

Putin? On the Ritz?

 
At 2:14 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Yeah, I made that pun, too, when I forwarded the link to my wife.

Our warped minds think alike . . .

Jeffery Hodges

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At 4:13 PM, Blogger Kevin Kim said...

Poutine sur le Ritz?

Poutine = (1) the Canadian comfort food, and (2) the French spelling of Putin's surname.

 
At 4:19 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Isn't there also a pun on "puta"?

Jeffery Hodges

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