In Memoriam pays tribute to those who have left this world, and the songs they left us to remember them by.
Burt Bacharach, who along with his writing partner Hal David embodied the sophisticated pop sounds of the 1960s, died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles on February 8. He was 94 years old.
One Great Cover looks at the greatest cover songs ever, and how they got to be that way.
If you’re blue, and you don’t know where to go to
Why don’t you go where Harlem flits?
Puttin’ on the RitzSpangled gowns upon the bevy of high browns
From down the levy, all misfits
Putting’ on the RitzThat’s where each and every lulubelle goes
Every Thursday evening with her swell beaus
Rubbin’ elbowsCome with me and we’ll attend their jubilee
And see them spend their last two bits
Puttin’ on the Ritz
When Irving Berlin wrote those lyrics in 1927, he was writing about the fad of the day, where poor black people would get dressed to the nines and parade up and down Harlem’s Lenox Avenue (which today is also known as Malcolm X Boulevard). Berlin used the word “lulubelle,” which was a slang term for a black maid, and Thursday was traditionally the maid’s day off. It was a gentle satire with a remarkably intricate rhythm, and while it didn’t coin the phrase “putting on the Ritz,” it certainly did popularize it.