[Dixielandjazz] The Story of Bei Mir Bist du Schein

[Robert Ringwald]

A friend sent this to me.  Thought some Listmates might enjoy reading this story.  unfortunately, having been born in 1940, I missed this the first time around.  

--Bob Ringwald



What a great story of a hit song!.

 The Story of Bei Mir Bist du Schein
The older generation, which certainly includes me, will surely remember the Andrews
Sisters, a trio whose unprecedented popularity in the late 30s and early 40s earned
them the title, America?s Sweethearts.  Perhaps the most important song of their
many hits was an upbeat tune that was originally written and sung in Yiddish and
introduced by two black entertainers in Harlem?s Apollo Theater, which ultimately
became the most popular song of its time.
Following is the little known story of this song.   I have been unable to find the
original source for attribution, however, it is such an important part of the culture
of our nation that it bears retelling.  So, here it is as it was recently sent to
me by a friend:
They called themselves Johnny and George, and they played the Apollo Theatre and
any other gigs they could get one hot summer in the 1930s.  Somewhere along the way,
they managed to get a booking at Grossinger's up in the Catskills.  Not bad.  Free
meals, you make a few bucks and you're out of New York City for a little while, beating
all that August heat that could blow down the sidewalks of 125th St.  Like a blast
furnace.
One day Jenny Grossinger showed them the music sheets for this Yiddish song called
"Bei Mir Bist du Schein," and Johnny and George had a little fun with it, with never
a clue that what they had here was going to become one of the biggest hits of their
time - but not for them.
So, Summer's over now, and Johnny and George are back down at the Apollo; they decide
to open with this Grossinger's song.  They sing it straight through in Yiddish, but
they kick up the beat and they get it rocking.
 And then they get it rocking more.  The crowd goes wild.  Everybody's dancing.
The Apollo has never heard anything like this.  Two black guys singing a swing version
of a Yiddish song?  In Yiddish?
 Watching all this from the balcony that night were two up-and-coming songwriters,
Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin, and they both knew a sensation when they heard one.
Who owned the rights to this song?  They wondered.  And what would they want for
them?
 Checking it out, Cahn and Chaplin learned that the lyrics had been written by one
Jacob Jacobs, who, with his music-writing partner, Sholom Secunda, had composed "Bei
Mir Bist du Schon" for a Yiddish production called "I Would If I Could."
 They'd already tried to sell it to Eddie Cantor, with no luck.  When Cahn offered
$30, they were happy to accept.  This was nothing unusual for them.  They'd sold
hundreds of songs for $30 apiece.
 Cahn and Chaplin went straight to Tommy Dorsey with their new $30 song, urging the
bandleader to play it at the Paramount Theater.  Dorsey wasn't interested.  Well,
it was in Yiddish, he explained.  So, Cahn and Chaplin translated the lyrics into
English.
 And then they took the tune to this new group of girl singers.  The Andrews Sisters,
they called themselves.  It happened that the sisters were then recording a Gershwin
song called "Nice Work if You Can Get It," and it was decided that "Bei Mir Bist
du Schon" would work okay as the B side.
 "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.  And so I've racked my brain, hoping to explain.  All the things that
you do to me.  Bei mir bist du schein, please let me explain, Bei mir bist du schein
means that you're grand."
 The Andrews' record was released a few days after Christmas 1938.
 By New Year's Eve it was playing over and over again on every radio station in New
York City.  It started when "The Milkman's Matinee" on WNEW picked it up and played
it on the all-night show.
 Soon there were near riots at the record stores.  Crowds would line up and the song
would be played out into the street from loudspeakers.  Traffic would back up for
blocks.  By the end of January, "Bei Mir Bist du Schein" had sold more than 350,000
copies.
 "Bei Mir Bist du Schon" fever spread across the land.  "It's wowing the country,"reported
one New Jersey paper.  "They are singing it in Camden, Wilkes-Barre, Hamilton, Ohio,
and Kenosha, Wis.  The cowboys of the West are warbling the undulating melody and
so are the hillbillies of the South, the lumberjacks of the Northwest, the fruit
packers of California, the salmon canners of Alaska."  And it was a huge hit in Yorkville:
"The Nazi bierstuben patrons yodel it religiously, under the impression that it's
a Goebbels-approved German chanty.
 "I could say Bella, even say Vunderbar, Each language only helps me tell you how
grand you are."
 Over in Germany, Hitler himself was a big fan.  Finally, the Third Reich had a tune
it could hum to.  At least, until it was discovered that the thing had been written
by two Jews from Brooklyn.
 Over the years, "Bei Mir Bist du Schein" made millions of dollars for a lot of singers
and record companies.  Finally, in 1961, after standing on the sidelines and watching
the royalties ring up over the years for a song that they'd made 15 bucks each on,
Secunda and Jacobs got the rights back.
 As for Johnny and George, who started all the excitement one night at the Apollo,
up in Harlem, it goes unrecorded whatever became of them, or even what their last
names were...
Click here to listen to the Andrews Sisters sing Bei Bist du Schein:
http://www.myvideo.de/watch/6157688/Andrews_Sisters_Bei_mir_bist_du_shein


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
916/806-9551
Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV

There are two rules for success:
1.  Don't tell all you know.