I know I am probably in the minority, but I prefer Taco’s version over the Fred Astaire version. Fred Astaire’s version makes me think “dancehall”. That doesn’t seem to fit for me. Taco’s version evokes images of high fashion, which is what I think of when hear the lyrics of Puttin’ on the Ritz.

As for the video, I think they did a great job of juxtaposing the images of high fashion the music brings to mind with the world on the outside of the Fred and Ginger Art Deco palaces of the 1930s. Someone I knew who blogs about classic films once referred to the video as Occupy the Ritz. This is the uncensored version that includes the blackface number as reference to the blackface number in Swing Time (1936). I especially love how in the end, both Taco and the other well to do people become ghosts.