"The Lady Is a Tramp" is a song from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms. It was first performed by Mitzi Green, a former child star. The song makes fun of New York high society and its strict rules about proper behavior, as well as its false ideas about being fancy. The first line of the song is, "I get too hungry for dinner at eight…" This song has become a well-known standard in music.

In the 1939 film version of Babes in Arms, the song is played only as an instrumental, without any singing.

Recordings

In 1937, early recordings of the song included versions by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra (with Edythe Wright singing), Midge Williams and Her Jazz Jesters, Sophie Tucker, and Bernie Cummins on the Vocalion records label (#3714). Lena Horne recorded the song with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio Orchestra on March 30, 1948. Her performance was included in the film Words and Music, which is a fictionalized biography of the partnership between Rodgers and Hart.

The song was also used in the film version of Pal Joey, starring Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth. In the film, Joey Evans, played by Sinatra, sings the song to Vera Simpson, played by Hayworth, as he attempts to persuade the wealthy widow Simpson to fund his dream of owning a night club.

The song was recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Greco (who changed the lyrics to include references to 1950s pop culture), Bing Crosby (for his radio shows), and Pat Suzuki in the 1950s, and by Shirley Bassey in the 1960s. It became a signature song for Sinatra. He performed the song with new lyrics as "The Gentleman Is a Champ" at tribute events for Spiro Agnew and Orson Welles. He also recorded a new version under the name Frankie Alvert, titled "Maureen Is a Champ," for Ringo Starr’s wife, Maureen Starkey; this version was never released commercially.

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga duet

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga recorded the song for his 2011 album Duets II. The song became the album's third and final single when it was sent to radio stations in Italy on October 21, 2011, by Sony Music. They performed the song on ABC's Thanksgiving special called A Very Gaga Thanksgiving. Even though the song was not officially released, it entered the Japan Hot 100 chart and reached the top 40. It also entered the top 200 extension of the UK Singles Chart.

The song and its music video received praise from critics for the vocal performances of Bennett and Gaga, as well as for the video's simple style, which was different from Gaga's earlier work.

A music video was filmed for the track. The video shows Bennett and Gaga singing "The Lady Is a Tramp" together in a studio in front of music stands. The video received mostly positive feedback from critics.

DitonellapiagaandTonyPitonyduet

This is a new version of the song originally performed by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. The song was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and first performed by Mitzi Green in 1937. The version presented at the 76th Sanremo Music Festival in 2026 was the first performed during the festival's cover song contest and won the competition. The live performance at Sanremo included a short part from Alberto Rabagliati's song "Ba ba baciami piccina."

In popular culture

• The 1955 Disney animated movie Lady and the Tramp uses the name of the song as its title.
• A 1974 television commercial for the Chrysler Plymouth Scamp car included a humorous version of the song with the line: "That's why this lady drives a Scamp."
• The 1997 Spice Girls song The Lady Is a Vamp uses the song's title as its name.
• In the eighteenth episode of the first season of Glee, titled Laryngitis, Noah Puckerman (played by Mark Salling) sings the song as a duet with Mercedes Jones (played by Amber Riley).
• Carol-Lynne performs the song in the third episode of The Playboy Club.
• The band They Might Be Giants created an instrumental version of the song.
• In a 1999 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Ferengi character Rom auditions for Vic Fontaine's nightclub by singing the song with the altered lyrics: "the lady is a scamp."