"Everybody's Doin' It Now," Ragtime 1911 Irving Berlin hit

"Everybody's Doin' It Now" is one of Irving Berlin's first popular hits, dating from 1911; it also was one of the first popular songs to present "ragtime" as mainstream dance music that could be enjoyed by people from any background.

Ragtime had begun in the late 19th century as syncopated piano music pioneered by black musicians. Berlin (born Israel Beilin) as a Russian-Jewish immigrant boy, absorbed the music he heard on the streets of New York and in his teenage job as a singing waiter. When he began writing songs as a young man, he captured the zeitgeist of his time--his early hits, including "Everybody's Doin' It Now," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," and "Mysterious Rag" made ragtime seem approachable and populist--something everyone could enjoy in popular song and dance form.

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Lyric:

Honey, honey, can't you hear?
Funny, funny music dear
Ain't the funny strain
Goin' to your brain?
Like a bottle of wine, fine...

Hon', hon', hon', hon'
Take a chance
One, one, one one,
Little dance

Can't you see them all
Swaying up the hall?
Let's be gettin' in line.

Everybody's doin' it
Doin' it, doin' it
Everybody's doin' it
Doin' it, doin' it

See that ragtime couple over there
Watch them throw their shoulders in the air
Snap their fingers
Honey I declare, it's a bear
It's a bear, it's a bear
There!

Everybody's doin' it
Doin' it, doin' it
Everybody's doin' it
Doin' it, doin' it

Ain't that music touching your heart?
Hear that trombone bustin' apart?
Come, come, come, come let us start
Everybody's doin' it now

Baby, baby, get a stool
Maybe, maybe I'm a fool
Honey don't you smile
Let us rest a while
I'm so weak in the chest, best...

Go, go, go, go,
Get a chair
No, no, no, no,
Leave it there

Honey, if the mob
Still are on the job
I'm as strong as the rest