Channel: Music
Uploaded: December 31, 1969 at 11:59 pm
Author: molesworthRAF
Length: 03:03
Rating: 5.00
Views: 1028
Between 1939 and 1940 Chesterfield Cigarettes sponsored radio shows featuring The Andrews Sisters with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. There were thirty-eight broadcasts with the Andrews Sisters. The broadcasts were fifteen minutes in duration, except for one half-hour program on December 27, 1939. From January 2 through March 21, 1940, the programs were broadcast at ten p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays."Bei Mir Bistu Shein" is a popular Yiddish song composed by Jacob Jacobs (lyricist) and Sholom Secunda (composer) for a Yiddish musical, I Would if I Could (in Yiddish, Men Ken Lebn Nor Men Lost Nisht, "you could live, but they won't let you") in 1932 that closed after one season. Secunda sold the publishing rights to the song for a mere $30.The song became famous with English lyrics but retaining the Yiddish title "Bei Mir Bist Du Schein."In 1937, Sammy Cahn heard a performance of the song, sung in Yiddish by African American performers Johnnie and George at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. On seeing the response, Cahn got his employer to buy the rights so he (together with Saul Chaplin) could rewrite the song with English language lyrics and rhythms more typical of swing music. He then convinced the still unknown Andrews Sisters to perform the song (recorded November 24, 1937). It became their first major hit, earning them a Gold Record, the first ever to a female vocal group.This recording, taken from the acetates made of the radio broadcasts, was from the evening of December 27, 1939.