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 [bad word] elbows [bad word] with me and we'll attend their jubilee
And see them spend their last two bits
Puttin' on the ritz