Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
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List of the still-lost songs: do you know any of them?
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The original song, Ain't Dat A Shame, published in 1901 by John Queen and Walter Wilson, was probably inspired by Frankie Baker, who in 1899 shot her man for going to a dance with another woman. She became the star of "Frankie and Johnny" and there are strains of the famous melody within this one. (In Ain't Dat A Shame, though, the philandering man thinks better of it and goes home, only to find she's locked the door, so nobody dies.)

The Yiddish parody written by Louis Gilrod probably began as just the title, which fit so nicely against the English language original. In the first verse a woman sends her suitor home; in the second verse a wife sends her gambling husband home; in the third verse a boarder sends his lovelorn landlady home.

Barb Coffman played the keyboard and Randy Kloko joined me on this song for our album Yiddish Ragtime

Here's our recording:


Transliteration and translation after the jump.


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Labels: battle between the sexes, humor, mores, sarcasm, travails, wedding, yiddish ragtime

UPDATE: In a collection from YIVO of publications called Lider Magazin (sent to me by Vivi Lachs) I found another set of lyrics for this song ("sung by Madame Finkel"). If anybody cares I'll post a translation. Here it is, click for a larger view.





This tune was supposedly from a Goldfaden operetta called "Bais Duwed" of which I can't find mention online. I found the lyrics, along with Der Tsiferblat, at Harvard -- written out longhand in Yiddish cursive by the composer, Oscar Solomonescu, and notated: for Pepi Littman, New York. And what a great song it is! I just can't believe this amazing tune, found for me by Michael Aylward, sung here by the magnificent Frank Seiden: Menner Menner, von Bais Duwed

And here's my version, sung this morning (the first time I've tried singing since our wretched election).


The composer, Osias Solomonescu, was born April 1869 in Yasi, Romania, to poor, Orthodox parents. Orphaned early, and penniless, but blessed with a beautiful voice, he found a home in some Romanian Yiddish theater troupe, where he sang in the chorus and played children's roles. His first adult role was Benyominl in Goldfaden's "Podriatshik" and after that he began playing comic roles, especially dressing as and playing a woman. He came to American in 1901 and played at the Eldorado. He also worked as a stage manager and "episode actor" in the Bronx Prospect Theater and in Philadelphia's Orchard Street Theater.

He wrote many theater songs most of which he sang himself. While still in Romania he translated the one act "The Red Trousers," which was later shown in Yiddish variety houses. Zylberzweig: "Solomonescu was unique in the Yiddish actors' world with his humorous letters, in which he described that era of the Yiddish theater." I'll have to look for that.

I think it's quite interesting that Solomonescu -- an actor known for playing women's roles in drag --  wrote these two songs for Pepi, an actress known for playing men's roles in drag (or at least, she played women pretending to be men). Quite modern.

Back to Frank Seiden (of whom I have not found a picture) -- he was one of the earliest Yiddish recording artists in America. I love his records even though they're very scratchy. Peter Nahon via MachineWhisperer.com avers that Seiden "led a wild life, winning a bar in New York's bowery during a poker game and tending bar there after his recording career was over."

One sees at ancestry.com that he was born in 1861 or 1862 in Austria/Galicia, immigrated in 1876 and was naturalized in 1886. He had one wife, Rachael, and four children: Jacob, Eva, Amalia/Mary, Joseph. He was listed in 1900 in Manhattan as a phonograph dealer, in 1905 in Brooklyn as an actor, in 1910 as "Vaudeville" in 1920 he was retired or unemployed. He was perhaps the Frank Seiden who died September 1926 and is buried at Mount Hebron cemetery in Flushing, Queens.

I hope some descendant will get in touch at some point and email me his picture!

Words and translation after the jump.

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Labels: battle between the sexes, humor, marriage, morality, wedding

This is the first song I'm posting since the end of a busy summer - one of the highlights was getting to present these penny songs at the Workmens Circle "Trip to Yiddishland" where I met a woman who actually remembered her uncle banging happily on the table while he sang Steam.

Farges nit kadish zogn is to be sung to the melody of a quite popular song from 1906, Shenkt a nedoveh, composed by Perlmutter & Wohl.

To hear the recording Roger and I did for Farges nisht kadesh zogn yesterday click this image:



By the way, there is different song also called Shenkt a nedove on the LOC site, and also by the way, on the cover here the title is transliterated Schenkt a neduwe but on the first page  the title is spelled Schenkt a ne du we.

My friend Roger Lynn Spears kindly played the piano part for me. You can hear his part again on a second song Morris Rund wrote to the same tune: Di korbones fun der shif titanik.

Transliteration and translation from the Yiddish after the jump:

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Labels: disaster, immigration, mother, travails, wedding

You'll find this one hiding at the FAU site under the English name "The Wedding Day."

Simon Pascal|Paskal|Paskel was a prolific recording artist, luckily for the Penny Songs project, he's been the source for many of the songs.

The sheet music, spelled Yom Hachupo, was published in 1910. Lyrics by Solomon Small, Music by Broidy and Friedsel.

Other spellings are Yom hakhupe, Yom hakhupeh, Yoym hakhupe etc.

Here's Simon Paskel's recording:


My translation from the Yiddish:

Bright and happy in the hall, in-laws dressed to the nines,
Guests are coming from everywhere to the welcoming celebration.
Floral perfume, song, wine, harmonizing together.
The musicians are playing very well,
Gentlemen and ladies are dancing together.
All are happy, bound together by friendship.
Look at the bride and groom, they're sitting as if tormented.

Say, what's with you, children?
Tell me, what's the matter?
It's your celebration today,
But look at your tears.
It's a fine question, and you understand
How it will be for the young couple ...

On the wedding day one's whole future life is on its way.
The obligation is a heavy weight:
To carry the yoke of family life.
You're coming into a new life,
not knowing what your fate will be.

The father and mother almost forget themselves
And prepare everything needed, lots to drink and eat
And they bid the guests: Drink! Eat! Go to the table, enjoy!
And each of you beloved guests grab a fat bite.
They've squandered too much money, and their health,
Both are tired, exhausted, they sigh in the silence.
Dear parents, why are you sighing, is something plaguing you?
It's your celebration today,
Say, what's with you?
Tell me what's the matter?
The question's a fine one,
You understand how it will be for the parents...

Click for a larger view of the lyrics:

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For sheet music and/or performances contact me: jane@mappamundi.com

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Labels: history, love, nostalgia, religion, travails, wedding

A brivele der mamen (A letter to mother) was such a huge success, all sorts of "letter" songs popped up afterwards. Two of them are in the American Penny Songs Collection. I found this one sung by a woman with, surely a stage name, Bella Nevera. The song, by M. Aronson and Rumshinsky (he was Rumshisky then) was published in 1910 so the record was probably made around that time.

She has a voice that is kind of hard to listen to - an intense vibrato and a high, loud delivery. In those days, before microphones, being able to project your voice in a large, noisy hall was a high priority. Here she is (with subtitles and the text so you can sing along if you, too, are waiting to hear from somebody who is probably not going to come through):


While working on this video I tried to figure out where I'd heard the tune before. Bingo, it's on our own cd, Nervez! One of the Itzik Zhelonek songs, Mendele, about pogroms and emigration to Israel, was set to this tune, and my friend Randy Kloko sang the song on the cd. From ultrasonic soprano to baritone, quite a leap. Have a listen:


And you can read more about the song as Randy sang it on my earlier blog, PolishJewishCabaret.com: Mendele.

Well, Ms Nevera sang only the first two verses, but we all knew where this story was going to end up. It's even more dramatic than you might have expected. Read and weep!
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Labels: battle between the sexes, history, immigration, marriage, mores, wedding

This song is so irritating I refuse to sing it. Rund specified it should be sung to "It's a Long Long Way to Tipperary." Well, we just recorded a different Yiddish parody set to "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," listen to that one instead: Di Yidishe Hofnung.

I am pretty sure I would have loathed Morris Rund. He was a bundle of resentment and paranoia. He worked all night at the bakery, having fantasies of what his wife was doing with the boarder while he was gone. But woman-hating men are still with us, a hundred years later, and they're just as idiotic now. So anyway here is one of his many rants against the modern woman. The original broadsides are at the bottom of this post. My transcription and translation:

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Labels: battle between the sexes, history, humor, male chauvinism, marriage, sarcasm, wedding, womens rights

This novelty song, about a wedding, maybe a real one, can be found on the FAU website and also in the Mayrent collection. The recording, from 1918, is by Morris Tuchband (pictured) (born in 1884 or 1886 in Warsaw, Poland, died 1969 in Brooklyn).

The label spells it Sol sein mit Mazel and helpfully calls it a parody of Waiting at the Church... The label gives the composer as Philip Singer (also Zinger). Read about him here: Philip Zinger.

... So next, listen to this ridiculous 1906 recording of Florrie Forde singing My Wife Won't Let Me (Waiting At The Church)- the poor bride is left abandoned at the altar because her bridegroom's wife won't let him come to the church. (Click below to hear it at Youtube.) This may be the first instance I've found of the original English-language song being more cynical than the Yiddish parody.


Get the sheet music at the LOC site: Waiting at the Church.

So now here is Morris Tuchband. It was only recently I realized putting the songsheets from the American Yiddish Penny Songs collection together with the historic recordings might be helpful to people trying to learn how to transcribe Yiddish lyrics from old scratchy records. I certainly couldn't have teased this one out! Morris doesn't sing exactly what's on the songsheet, but it's close.


Here's my translation, including the third verse which Morris doesn't sing and which includes references to legendary characters. Note about pishe peyshe, a card game which has come up in these songs before: the main thing is that it's a kid's game hence funny that the healthy detectives are playing. Wikipedia says

• pisha paysha – corruption of English card game "Pitch and Patience"

Click below for a larger view of the songsheet.

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For sheet music and/or performances contact me: jane@mappamundi.com

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Labels: humor, marriage, New York, nostalgia, wedding