Bei Mir Bistu Shein

When I Have Schoen [sic ] is the title of a swing piece which was in 1938 made ​​famous by the Andrews Sisters. The original was written in 1932 by Shalom Secunda (music) and Jacob Jacobs ( text ) for a Yiddish musical.

Genesis

Bay me bistu sheyn ( original transliteration from the Yiddish בייַ מיר ביסטו שיין, as in the meaning " For me, you 're beautiful " or "I think you're pretty" ) was founded in 1932 for the Yiddish Musical Men ken lebn normal men lost indistinguishable ( " you could live, but they will not let us ") written. The musical was performed in 1933 for one season in New York Rolland Theatre, a Jewish theater with 1630 seats, located in Brooklyn. This song was sheyn Bay originally in C minor, sung as a duet bistu me of a couple of lovers. The authors had registered him until shortly before the Musikverlag J ( erry ) & J ( oseph ) Kammen Music Co. copyright. The publisher suggested the authors to buy some of them the song for $ 30.

1937 led the African-American duo Johnny & George a strongly syncopated interpretation of the song ( in Yiddish ) at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. One of these successful performances attended the music producer and composer Sammy Cahn and his music publisher Lou Levy from Leeds Music. Both decided to take up the song for commercial purposes. Cahn and Saul Chaplin bought the rights to the original and wrote the song to fundamentally. They changed the rhythm of the music and transferred the text freely into English. The Yiddish title was here Germanized wrong. The new text combined English words synonymous with whispers of love, without to be guided by a strict translation:

In this form, the song has a timeless piece with international success and the status of a classic.

Commercial use

Cahn and Chaplin tried to Tommy Dorsey to persuade, to record the song, but was not interested. The first commercial recording comes from the then still unknown Andrews Sisters vocal trio that recorded the song on November 24, 1937 with the orchestra of Vic Schoen (trumpet solo by Bobby Hackett ). However, the record company Decca held the market opportunities for small, so he was released on the B-side. The A- side contained a version of Nice Work If You Can Get It for the first time publicly led the trio the title in the radio series Your Hit Parade on January 8, 1938. After the song was frequently broadcast by the radio stations of New York City. End of January 1938, in the United States for more than 350,000 records sold, and the panel kept the next five weeks on the top spot of the Billboard charts. The group received the first of a female vocal group awarded gold record for these sales success.

By 1961, 2.5 million copies have been implemented in several versions, which brought the new rights holders royalties together with the payments of the radio station three million U.S. dollars. Secunda only received $ 4,325 since 1954. The song was the second single of the Andrews Sisters, began her real career and became her signature song.

Other uses

The first cover version is by Russ Morgan & His Music. It was created on 10 December 1937, reached after the publication in January 1938 Rank 3 of the U.S. singles chart. It was followed on December 15, 1937 Guy Lombardo, who with his version finished in January 1938 for two weeks the first rank. Belle Baker took the Gene Kardos Orchestra for the title on December 21, 1937 Benny Goodman followed on 21 and December 29, 1937 (Rank 4), Kate Smith on December 28, 1937 (Rank 15). For Europe, Al Bowlly took his version on 4 January 1938 in London. A jazzy version was recorded by Adrian Rollini Quintet on January 18, 1938, Buddy Rich (drums ); Louis Prima & Keeley Smith published their rock'n'roll version in July 1959. With me you 're beautiful was also in the American film Love, Honor and Behave sung, who was released in theaters on 12 March 1938.

Copyright

1961 ran out of the old Copyright, and Secunda and Jacobs received their rights to the song at Harms Music Co. back. The enormous number of cover versions already in 1938 caused many more versions in the following period. A total of 48 versions in different variant titles are copyright registered in the U.S. collecting society ASCAP. Internationally, the song had great success. In the Soviet Union the State Jazz Orchestra recorded a Russian version. Even in Nazi Germany, the song was played, such as by Teddy Stauffer. Zarah Leander took the title in April 1938 in Stockholm in Swedish. De robbers have the song in 2004 today ' satirizes nicely under the title I drink you.

Artists

The following list offers a selection of the artist; already mentioned are not listed again:

Sholom Secunda Yiddish language Music publisher (popular music) Syncopation Nice Work If You Can Get It (song) Dan Barrett (musician) LyricWiki
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