Bei mir bist du schön live Hot Club du Nax
Jazz Singer Isobel Cope on Vocals, Jazz Guitarists Arian Kindl and Lukas Bamesreiter, Double Bass Player Dario Michele Gurrado and Violinist Tomas Novak. Filmed by Robert Puteanu.
"Bei Mir Bistu Shein" (Yiddish: בײַ מיר ביסטו שיין) "To Me You're Beautiful") is a popular Yiddish song written by Jacob Jacobs (lyricist) and Sholom Secunda (composer) 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, the song became a worldwide hit when recorded under a Germanized title as "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön" by The Andrews Sisters 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 [immigrant] culture" can transform the popular arts of a large democratic nation.
Yiddish original
Further information on the original authors: Sholom Secunda and Jacob Jacobs (theater)
Sholom Secunda was a cantor 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 connected 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 allegedly trite and underwhelming:
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. He flew by plane to California to sell the rights to the song to popular entertainer Eddie Cantor who demurred by saying: "I can't use it. It's too Jewish." In dire financial straits, Secunda sold the rights in 1937 to the Kammen Music Company for a mere US $30, a modest sum which he split with his partner Jacobs.(In light of the later global success of the song, Secunda and Jacobs forfeited earning as much as $350,000 in royalties.)
English version
The song became a worldwide phenomenon following its recording by The Andrews Sisters. A year later, the popular film Love, Honor and Behave (1938) used the song as its theme.
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.
Lyrics
Of all the boys I've known, and I've known some
Until I first met you, I was lonesome
And when you came in sight, dear, my heart grew light
And this old world seemed new to me
You're really swell, I have to admit you
Deserve expressions that really fit you
And so I've racked my brain, hoping to explain
All the things that you do to me
Bei mir bist do schön, please let me explain
Bei mir bist do schön means you're grand
Bei mir bist do schön, again I'll explain
It means you're the fairest in the land
I could say Bella, bella, even sehr wünderbar
Each language only helps me tell you how grand you are
I've tried to explain, bei mir bist do schön
So kiss me and say you understand