Have you seen the well-to-do up on Lenox Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare with their noses in the air
High hats and colored collars, white spats and fifteen dollars
Spending every dime for a wonderful time

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where Harlem sits
Puttin' on the ritz

Spangled gowns upon a bevy of high browns
From down the levee, all misfits
Puttin' on the ritz

That's where each and every lulubelle goes
Ev'ry Thursday evening with her swell beaus
Rubbing elbows

Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee
And see them spend their last two bits
Puttin' on the ritz