1946 Fred Astaire - Puttin' on the Ritz
From: Top Hat/Blue Skies Original Soundtracks ; Year: 2004 (1946); Genre: Pop/Musical/Jazz I'm again making another pick where a date concerning a song and the song pick number match. Irving Berlin composed this song for over a decade and a half prior to this recording as part of the music in the film of the song's namesake ; it was re-recorded and covered a few times as well before this rather famous version for another film was recorded. The earlier versions of the song had different lyrics; it was re-written by Irving Berlin to fit the new musical film: Blue Skies . Today most probably would recognize versions with the newer lyrics mostly because the original lyrical content was less racially sensitive. This is one of those songs that has never really gone away; it has been covered countless times, even in recent years. The unique and rather catchy, offbeat syncopated singing, especially in verses, is probably one of the main reasons this song has remained so popul...