Oylem habe [iz tayerer fun gelt] - Heaven's worth more than money - Pepi Littman 1913 and Jane Peppler 2021


The title Oylem Habe is spelled Ojlom Habu on the recording issued by Frau Pepi Litman. (Aka olam habah, the Next World, the World to Come, heaven.) You can find it on volume 3 of Cantors, Klezmorim And Crooners 1905-1953, a great collection curated by Henry Sapoznik. Her singing is accompanied by flute. Archive.org notes:
Yiddish song recorded by Pepi Littman 1913, issued on 78rpm disc as "Ojlom Habu" by "Frau Pepi Littmann with violin and flute" on Victor record label, catalog number 657185, originally issued on Parlophone record label, catalog number 702. Possibly recorded in Budapest or Lemberg (Polish: Lwow, Yiddish: Lviv), possibly with musicians from Gimpel's Lemberg Yiddish Theatre, exact date and location unknown; date of 1913? is attributed by YIVO music archive in New York.
Pepi lived and performed mainly in Europe, but she made several records in New York. She is a famous darling now for being a cross-dresser: she liked to wear men's clothing when she performed. Read more about her here.
The lyrics (including the first verse, which she did not sing) are found in the Morris Rund Penny Songs collection and it's wonderful to reunite them with their melody. Comparing what Pepi sang to the broadside, we see a number of differences. I believe this is not the first song where Pepi removed the Yinglishisms and substituted proper Yiddish words. Also, on the Warsaw songsheet we have Dos meydl hot keyn shies gemakht [שהיות = delays] while the American songsheet has Dos meydl hot keyn yeshues gemakht [ישהות = Salvation] - let's lay it on the line, the "heaven" the boss achieves is the kind that gives girls like this one a "heaven" that needs diapers.
Here's a recording:

No composer is given.
Miriam Isaacs says that most theater songs mentioning rebbes are dirty, and this one is no exception. The Forward writes:
Her famous oylem habo ditty brought sex to the staid and the holy in the shtetl where a rabbi decides to ‘help’ a barren woman conceive — so he can enjoy a piece of the ‘world to come.’ With Littman’s help it becomes a term for, well, lightning in your pants.
Transliteration of the songsheet and translation after the jump.