Another song from "Watch Your Step", Berlin's first full musical score.
The Parlor Songs Academy is an organization dedicated to the preservation of America's musical heritage.
Story behind the song
In the Victorian era, it was considered unseemly for couples to dance in public, other than the Waltz. By 1914, there was an explosion of new dances, hence Berlin's reference to "the dancing craze" in the verse.
Lyrics
Verse 1:
Strange, but there's a change, In how the people walk these days
Yes! you must confess That ever since the dancing craze
Ev'rybody has a syncopated walk, Where it's in the air
You'll find them swaying as they go, Smile but all the while
You must admit that it is so, For they do, they do, If you don't think it's true
Chorus:
Look at 'em doin' it! Look at 'em doin' it! That syncopated walk
Look at 'em doin' it! Look at 'em doin' it! I know who introduced it
Wait'll he reaches you, Wait'll he teaches you
That syncopated walk, You'll be doing it too
Because it's done by ev'ryone, You'll find it's international, That irrational step
It's full of "Pep", full of "Pep"
And in the morning when they rise
For their morning exercise, They take a syncopated walk
