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"Bei Mir Bistu Shein"
Original cover for the sheet music, referencing the Yiddish show it appeared in. New York, 1932.
Song
Language	Yiddish
English title	"To Me You're Beautiful"
Written	1932
Composer(s)	Sholom Secunda
Lyricist(s)	Jacob Jacobs (Yiddish) Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin (English)

"Bei Mir Bistu Shein" (Yiddish: בײַ מיר ביסטו שעהן [baɪ ˈmɪr ˈbɪstʊ ˈʃɛɪn], "To Me You're Beautiful") is a popular Yiddish song written by lyricist Jacob Jacobs and composer Sholom Secunda for a 1932 Yiddish language comedy musical, I Would If I Could (in Yiddish Men Ken Lebn Nor Men Lost Nisht, "You could live, but they don't let you"), which closed after one season at the Parkway Theatre in Brooklyn, New York City. The score for the song transcribed the Yiddish title as "Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn". The original Yiddish version of the song (in C minor) is a dialogue between two lovers. Five years after its 1932 composition, English lyrics were written for the tune by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin, and the English version of the song became a worldwide hit when recorded by The Andrews Sisters under a Germanized spelling of the title, "Bei mir bist du schön", in November 1937.

Neil W. Levin, a scholar of Jewish music, has contended that "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" is "the world's best-known and longest-reigning Yiddish theater song of all time." Echoing these sentiments, writer Stephen J. Whitfield has further posited that the song's popularity and influence in pre-war America epitomizes how "a minority culture" can transform the popular arts of a large democratic nation.

History

Yiddish original

Sholom Secunda was a composer born in the Russian Empire in 1894. He immigrated to the United States as a boy in 1906. When composing tunes for Yiddish theater as a young man, Secunda purportedly spurned a youthful George Gershwin as a musical collaborator in favor of Jacob Jacobs, an actor-director affiliated with the Parkway Theater. Together, Secunda and lyricist Jacobs created "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" for a Yiddish operetta called I Would If I Could, written in 1932 by Abraham Blum. The plot of Blum's operetta was reportedly trite and underwhelming:

"Jake, a shoe factory worker who is fired for union organizing activity is in love with the owner's daughter, Hene. In response to her concern about the endurance of his commitment to her, he sings Bay mir bistu sheyn to her at some point in the first act. Despite a series of predictable attempts to thwart the marriage, they are, of course, wed in the end."

The song itself featured only fleetingly in this original musical production and was performed as a lovers duet by Aaron Lebedeff and Lucy Levin. Nevertheless, the song became a well-known crowd-pleaser in Yiddish musical theater and at Jewish enclaves in the Catskills. It was a favorite among Jewish bandstands of the Second Avenue milieu.

When I Would If I Could closed after one season, Secunda attempted to sell the publishing rights of the song, even taking a plane to California to promote it to popular entertainer Eddie Cantor who demurred saying: "I can't use it. It's too Jewish." In dire financial straits, Secunda sold the rights in 1937 to the Kammen Brothers Music Company for a mere US $30 (equivalent to $636 in 2023), a modest sum which he split with his partner Jacobs. In light of the later global success of the song, by making that 1937 sale Secunda and Jacobs forfeited earning as much as $350,000 in royalties (equivalent to $7,418,056 in 2023).

English version

There are conflicting versions regarding the origins for the English version of the song. In one popular retelling, musician Sammy Cahn witnessed a spectacular performance of the song in Yiddish by African-American performers Johnnie and George at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City. Jenny Grossinger, a Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel proprietor, claimed to have taught the song to Johnnie and George while they were performing at the resort. Upon seeing the enthusiastic audience response to the song, Cahn urged his employer to buy the rights so that he and frequent collaborator Saul Chaplin could rewrite the composition with English lyrics and alter the rhythm to be more typical of swing music. Cahn later was able to locate the sheet music in a Manhattan store in the Jewish Lower East Side.

A competing origin story claims that bandleader Vic Schoen discovered Secunda's and Jacobs' catchy tune "in a collection of folk songs in a small shop in the lobby of a Yiddish theater on Second Avenue." Schoen forwarded the memorable song to Lou Levy "who in turn gave it to Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin who wrote the lyrics for it." Levy then persuaded the little-known Andrews Sisters to record the song (as "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön") on November 24, 1937, for a flat fee of $50 (equivalent to $1,060 in 2023). The Andrews Sisters had initially attempted to record the song in Yiddish, but their Decca Records producer Jack Kapp stridently objected and insisted the trio record the song in American-vernacular English.

Hitherto dismissed as mere imitators of the Boswell Sisters, the Andrews Sisters' cover of the Yiddish song—"which the girls harmonized to perfection"—catapulted the relatively unknown trio to fame and became a tremendous hit for Kapp's Decca label. Within thirty days, a quarter of a million records had been sold, as well as two hundred thousand copies of the sheet music. Life magazine claimed that music stores were inundated by baffled customers trying to purchase a record which they misidentified as either "Buy a Beer, Mr. Shane," or "My Mere Bits of Shame."

Global phenomenon

The song quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. Within thirty days of the Andrews Sisters' version of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," a number of other artists recorded covers in the hopes of capitalizing on its popularity. In December 1937, artists such as Belle Baker, Kate Smith, Benny Goodman (with Martha Tilton and Ziggy Elman), Ella Fitzgerald, the Barry Sisters, and Rudy Vallée, had all put out competing recordings.

Soon after, the song appeared in Hollywood films such as Love, Honor and Behave (1938) sung by ingénue Priscilla Lane, and Oscar Micheaux's American race film Swing (1938) sung by Cora Green. By the end of 1938—a mere year later—Guy Lombardo, Greta Keller, Mieczyslaw Fogg, Slim Gaillard, Zarah Leander, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Eddie Rosner, Adrian Rollini, Tommy Dorsey, and others had all recorded the song.

From the 1940s to 1960s, additional covers were performed by a younger generation of artists which included Ramsey Lewis, Louis Prima (with Keely Smith), The Crew-Cuts, and June Christy.

Over time, the song grossed approximately $3 million (equivalent to $63,583,333 in 2023), with its original creators Secunda and Jacobs missing significant royalties. In February 1961, the copyright on the song expired, and the ownership reverted to Secunda and Jacobs, who signed a contract with Harms, Inc., securing proper royalties. That same year, Secunda and Jacobs developed a new musical around the song itself, eponymously titled Bay mir bistu sheyn.

The revamped 1961 musical focuses on a "a rabbi and his two sons and a matchmaker and his daughter. One of the rabbi's sons is in love with the matchmaker's daughter." Their desired marriage eventually occurs, but not before the usual romantic misunderstandings and complexities. In his later years, shortly before his death, Secunda purportedly expressed dismay that he would be remembered solely for writing the song.

Other countries

Nazi Germany

In 1938, the song was a smash hit in Nazi Germany under its Germanized title "Bei mir bist du schön". According to contemporary journalist Michael Mok, the song was likewise immensely popular among the German diaspora in America where pro-Nazi sympathizers in Yorkville ale-houses often chorused the tune under the mistaken impression that it was "a Goebbels-approved" ballad. Initially assumed to be an uncontroversial song in a southern German dialect, an uproar occurred when its Jewish provenance was abruptly discovered and widely publicized by the press. Following this embarrassing discovery, as "any music by composers of Jewish ancestry was forbidden under the Nazi regime," the song was promptly banned by state authorities in Germany.

Later during World War II, an unusual exception to this ban occurred: Noticing that radio audiences wished to hear American jazz, the Nazis decided to exploit such music for their propaganda efforts. Accordingly, Charlie and his Orchestra—a Nazi-sponsored German propaganda swing ensemble derisively nicknamed "Goebbels' band"—recorded a state-approved anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik version of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön." This version was played by Nazi broadcasters in occupied countries. This Nazi propaganda version of the song was entitled "Anthem of the International Brotherhood of Bolsheviks" and has been credited by scholar Élise Petit with increasing anti-Semitic sentiment amid the Holocaust.

Poland

In 1938 two separate Polish-language versions appeared in Poland. The first one, with lyrics by Andrzej Włast, "Ty masz dla mnie coś", was sung by Mieczysław Fogg. The other one, with lyrics by Zenon Friedwald, "Czy wiesz, mała miss?", was performed by top Polish crooners of the pre-war era, Adam Aston, Albert Harris and Mieczysław Fogg, and by less known artists, such as Henryk Wróblewski and Edward Zayenda.

In post-war Poland Agnieszka Osiecka wrote new Polish lyrics, "Ty masz w sobie coś".

Soviet Union

There have been several parody songs to the tune in the Soviet Union, some of them performed by popular jazz orchestra. In 1943, a Russian-language song with the same melody was produced entitled "Baron von der Pshik" ("Барон фон дер Пшик"); presumably to avoid paying royalties, this version was falsely credited to a Soviet songwriter. It featured satirical anti-Nazi lyrics by Anatoli Fidrovsky, with music arrangement by Orest Kandat. Initially, it was recorded by the jazz orchestra (director Nikolay Minkh) of the Baltic Fleet Theatre, and later it was included into the repertoire of Leonid Utyosov's jazz orchestra.

In the late Soviet period, a version came out under the name "In the Port of Cape Town" ("V Keiptaunskom portu"), with lyrics by Pavel Gandelman [ru], a Jewish native of Leningrad. It quickly became part of the Soviet urban folklore. This song was performed, among others, by Russian singer Larisa Dolina.

Parodies

• "The Bear Missed the Train," was written by the Smith Street Society Jazz Band in 1964 and became a favorite on Jean Shepherd's radio program.
• "The Ballad of Shane Muscatel" is a humorous song written by Tom Constanten. Set amidst a fictional Old West rivalry between wine vintners and beer brewers, it tells of the titular oenophile's wanderings. The narrative's final verse includes the punchline, "Buy a beer, Mr. Shane".
• Shasta Beverages ran commercials for Shasta Root Beer, during the 1970s, where a dusty cowpoke entered a saloon, asking "Barkeep, whadya got that's real good", and everyone in the bar breaks out in song to answer, "Root beer, Mr. Shane".

Notes

1. The last word is now more commonly spelled שיין.

References

Citations

1. Gottlieb 2004, p. 57.
2. Nimmo 2007, pp. 73–74; Esterow 1961, p. 22.
3. ^ Levin 2010.
4. ^ Whitfield 2001, pp. 1–2.
5. ^ Mok 1938.
6. Secunda 1982, pp. 133–134.
7. Secunda 1982, pp. 127–129; Esterow 1961, p. 22.
8. ^ Levin 2010; Esterow 1961, p. 22.
9. Secunda 1982, p. 144.
10. Secunda 1982, pp. 144–149; Mok 1938; Esterow 1961, p. 22.
11. ^ Esterow 1961, p. 22.
12. ^ Nimmo 2007, p. 73.
13. Secunda 1982, p. 198.
14. ^ Secunda 1982, p. 148.
15. Hersch 2016, p. 27.
16. Nimmo 2007, p. 328.
17. ^ Secunda 1982, p. 150.
18. Nimmo 2007, pp. 73–74.
19. Nimmo 2007, p. 76.
20. Nimmo 2007, p. 76; Secunda 1982, p. 150.
21. Hersch 2016, p. 133.
22. Whitfield 2001, pp. 1–2; Nimmo 2007, p. 76; Secunda 1982, p. 150.
23. Smith 2011, p. 1563.
24. Levin 2010; Mok 1938.
25. Rust & Debus 1973, p. 387.
26. Lerski 2003, p. 279.
27. Hersch 2016, pp. 118, 133.
28. Seiler 1997, p. 41.
29. Szwed 2006, p. 192.
30. Secunda 1982, p. 150; Van Delden 2019, p. 350.
31. Secunda 1982, p. 150; Levin 2010.
32. Hot Sardines 2014.
33. Hersch 2016, p. 51.
34. Dash 2012.
35. Steinbiss & Eisermann 1988.
36. Petit 2012; Dash 2012.
37. Bergmeier & Lotz 1997.
38. Petit 2012.
39. ^ Secunda 1982, p. 151; Starr 1994, p. 190.
40. Secunda 1982, p. 151; Levin 2010.
41. Secunda 1982, p. 151.
42. Starr 1994, pp. 183–184.
43. "Гандельман, Павел Моисеевич"
44. Bergmann 2005, p. 203.
45. "The Ballad of Shane Muscatel". AllMusic. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
46. Shasta Root Beer 1976.

Works cited

• Bergmann, Eugene B. (2005). Excelsior, You Fathead!: The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 1-55783-600-0. Retrieved March 29, 2019 – via Google Books.
• Bergmeier, Horst J. P.; Lotz, Rainer E. (1997). Hitler's Airwaves: The Inside Story of Nazi Radio Broadcasting and Propaganda Swing. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-06709-5. Retrieved March 29, 2019 – via Google Books.
• Dash, Mike (May 17, 2012). "Hitler's Very Own Hot Jazz Band". Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
• Esterow, Milton (October 23, 1961). "'Bei Mir Bistu Schoen' at the Anderson". The New York Times. New York. p. 22. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
• Gottlieb, Jack (2004). Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-8444-1130-9. Retrieved March 29, 2019 – via Google Books.
• Hersch, Charles B. (2016). Jews and Jazz: Improvising Ethnicity. Milton Park, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-27039-3. Retrieved March 29, 2019 – via Google Books.
• Lerski, Tomasz (2003). Poland's First Recording Company (in Polish). Karin. ISBN 978-8-391-71890-2 – via Google Books.
• Levin, Neil W. (2010). "Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn: To Me You're Beautiful". Milken Archive of Jewish Music. Volume 13: Great Songs of the American Yiddish Stage. Santa Monica, California: Milken Family Foundation. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
• Mok, Michael (January 26, 1938). "Composer of 'Bei Mir' Tells How He Had to Split $30 Fee: Got Only That Sum for Rights to Old Song That In New Dress is Sweeping U.S. — And $15 Went to Lyricist". Camden Courier-Post. Cherry Hill, New Jersey. p. 9. Retrieved March 29, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
• Nimmo, Harry Arlo (2007) . The Andrews Sisters: A Biography and Career Record. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 73–76. ISBN 978-0-7864-3260-8. Retrieved March 29, 2019 – via Google Books.
• Rust, Brian; Debus, Allen G. (1973). The Complete Entertainment Discography, from the Mid-1890s to 1942. New York City: Arlington House. ISBN 978-0-87000-150-5 – via Google Books.
• Petit, Élise (2012). "Charlie and his Orchestra". Music and the Holocaust. London, United Kingdom: World ORT. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
• Secunda, Victoria (1982). Bei Mir Bist Du Schön: The Life of Sholom Secunda. United States: Magic Circle Press. ISBN 978-0-913660-15-7. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
• Seiler, Paul (1997). Zarah Leander: Ich Bin Eine Stimme (in German). Berlin, Germany: Ullstein. ISBN 978-3-548-35711-9 – via Google Books.
• Shasta Beverages (8 October 2017). "Shasta Root Beer Commercial (1976)". YouTube. Archived from the original on March 24, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
• Smith, Jessie Carney (2011). Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-35797-8 – via Google Books.
• Starr, S. Frederick (1994). Red and Hot: The Fate of Jazz in the Soviet Union 1917-1991. Limelight. ISBN 978-0-87910-180-0 – via Google Books.
• Steinbiss, Florian; Eisermann, David (April 18, 1988). "Wir haben damals die beste Musik gemacht". Der Spiegel (in German). Hamburg, Germany. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
• Szwed, John (October 19, 2006). Crossovers: Essays on Race, Music, and American Culture. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1972-4.
• The Hot Sardines (August 7, 2014). "New Album Out October 7 on Decca Records". HotSardines.com. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
• Van Delden, Ate (November 29, 2019). Adrian Rollini: The Life and Music of a Jazz Rambler. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-2517-9 – via Google Books.
• Whitfield, Stephen J. (2001). In Search of American Jewish Culture. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-1-58465-171-0. Retrieved March 29, 2019 – via Google Books.

External links

•  Yiddish Wikisource has original text related to this article: Lyrics in Yiddish (in the Hebrew script)
• History of Bei Mir Bistu Shein featuring archival film clips on YouTube (in Russian)
• The Andrews Sisters sing Bei Mir Bistu Shein with new English lyrics (1937) on YouTube
• Lyricist's granddaughter tells "The Real Story of Bei Mir Bistu Shein" (2011) on YouTube

• 1933 songs
• Songs with lyrics by Sammy Cahn
• Songs written by Saul Chaplin
• Yiddish theatre
• Yiddish words and phrases
• Songs with music by Sholom Secunda
• Songs in Yiddish
• 1938 singles
• The Andrews Sisters songs
• Kate Smith songs
• Belle Baker songs
• Al Bowlly songs
• Guy Lombardo songs
• United States National Recording Registry recordings
• Quotations from music
• 1933 quotations