Released on January 1, 1964
15K Views
[CORNELIUS & BARNABY]
Yes, New York
It's really us
Barnaby and Cornelius
[IRENE & MINNIE]
All the guests of Mr. Hackl are
Feelin' great and look spectacular
[ALL]
What a knack
There is to that
You can never ever carry it off
[CORNELIUS]
All who are
Well-bred agree
Minnie Fay
Has pedigree
[IRENE]
Exercise your wildest whims tonight
We are out with diamond Jims tonight
[MINNIE]
Could they be
Misleading us?
[CORNELIUS & BARNABY]
Silver spoons were used for feeding us
We got elegance
If you ain't got elegance
[ALL]
You can never ever carry it off
Middle class
Don't speak of it
Savoir faire
We reek of it
Some were born with rags and patches but
We use dollar bills for matches and
[MINNIE]
Vanderbilt
Kowtows to us
[CORNELIUS]
J.P. Morgan scrapes and bows to us
[ALL]
We've got elegance
We were born with elegance
[CORNELIUS]
Have you noticed when I hold my cup
The saucer never moves?
[IRENE]
And the way I keep my pinky up
Indubitably proves
[ALL]
That we got elegance
We've got built in elegance
And with elegance
We'll carry it off!
“Spectacular” is here pronounced “spec-ta-ca-lar,” a verbal mangling that was a trademark of songwriter Bob Merrill, often identified as a ghostwriter for this song.
To act in a subservient manner, or a type of bowing in Chinese customs.
James Buchanan Brady (1856 – 1917) was an American businessman, financier and philanthropist of the Gilded Age. He was known as “Diamond Jim” for collecting gemstones.
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (1837 – 1913) was an American financier and banker known for founding the banking firm J. P. Morgan & Co.
The developments in England during the Victorian age led to massive revolutions in industry, one of the effects of which was that some became massively wealthy in a matter of decades.
The response of the declining landed aristocracy and the rise of these captains of industry led to those old aristocrats, “old money”, to cling ever tighter to power and exclusivity. Customs and upbringing became demarcations of class, in a way that if you weren’t “upper class”, you’ll never be, no matter how wealthy you are.
Now, why is this important? It’s because humans aren’t social creatures by webs, but by circles. Rich associate with rich, the upper class won’t socialize with those that they consider “inferior”, and as the change was gradual, eventually new money, even in America, assimilated slowly into this old money culture. Old money brought with it certain privileges: connections. In terms of love, there was still a sort of sacrilege to the rich marrying downwards. Social mobility wasn’t really a thing until the 20th century.
We won’t mention how ironically, America never really had much of a landed aristocracy, but American Tycoons who wanted to imitate their English and French cousins did well in keeping their own circles tightly controlled. I will note that “self-made man” was a insult for a good portion of the 20th century.
