With Mir Bistu Shein

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At Mir Bistu Shein , in Hebrew script בײַ מיר ביסטו שיין( Yiddish , for example "For me you are beautiful" or "I think you are beautiful") is the title of a swing piece that was made famous in 1938 by the Andrews Sisters . The original was written for a Yiddish musical in 1932 . In German-speaking countries, the song is also known under the title With me you are beautiful .

History of origin

At Mir Bistu Shein , Sholom Secunda (1894–1974; music) and Jacob Jacobs (1890–1977; text) for the Yiddish musical Men ken lebn norm men lost nisht (“One could live, but they don't let us”) written. The musical was staged for one season in 1933 at New York's Rolland Theater, a 1,630-seat Jewish theater in Brooklyn . The original song Bay mir bistu sheyn was sung in C minor as a duet by lovers. The authors had previously registered it for copyright with the music publisher J (erry) & J (oseph) Kammen Music Co. The publisher suggested the authors buy the song from them for $ 30.

In 1937 the African American duo Johnny & George performed a heavily syncopated interpretation of the song (in Yiddish) at the Apollo Theater in Harlem . One of these successful performances was attended by music producer and composer Sammy Cahn with his music publisher Lou Levy from Leeds Music. Both decided to take up the song for commercial purposes. Cahn and Saul Chaplin acquired the rights to the original and fundamentally rewrote the song. They changed the rhythm of the music and freely translated the text into English. The Yiddish title was incorrectly Germanized. The new text combined English words into a synonym for love whispers, without being guided by a strict translation:

  • With me you are beautiful [...] " means you're the fairest in the land " (German: "you are the most beautiful in the whole country")
  • With me you are beautiful " means that you're grand " (German: "you are great")

In this form, the song became a timeless piece with international success and the status of an evergreen .

commercial use

Andrews Sisters - You are beautiful with me

Cahn and Chaplin tried to persuade Tommy Dorsey to record the song, but he was not interested. The first commercially used recording was made by the then unknown vocal trio Andrews Sisters , who recorded the song on November 24, 1937 with the orchestra of Vic Schoen (trumpet solo by Bobby Hackett ). However, the Decca record company kept the market chances low, so it was released on the B-side. The A-side contained a version of Nice Work If You Can Get It . The trio first publicly performed the title in the radio series Your Hitparade on January 8, 1938. After that, the song became very popular on radio stations in New York City. By January 1938, more than 350,000 records had been sold in the United States, and the record stayed number one on the Billboard charts for the next five weeks . The group received the first gold record awarded to a female vocal group for this sales success .

By 1961, 2.5 million copies were made in different versions, which brought the new rights holders royalties along with payments from the radio stations three million dollars. Secunda has only received $ 4,325 since 1954. The song was the Andrews Sisters' second single, started their real career and became their signature song.

Other uses

Belle Baker - You are beautiful with me

The first cover version comes from Russ Morgan & His Music. It was created on December 10, 1937 and reached number 3 on the US hit parade after its publication in January 1938. It was followed on December 15, 1937 by Guy Lombardo , who took first place with his version for two weeks in January 1938. Belle Baker took up the title with the Gene Kardos Orchestra in December 1937, as did Benny Goodman (4th place) and Kate Smith (15th place). For Europe, Al Bowlly recorded his version on January 4, 1938 in London. A jazzy version was recorded by the Adrian Rollini Quintet on January 18, 1938 with Buddy Rich (drums); Louis Prima & Keeley Smith released their rock'n'roll version in July 1959. With me are you beautiful was also sung in the American film Love, Honor and Behave , which was released on March 12, 1938.

copyright

In 1961 the old copyright expired , and Secunda and Jacobs got their rights to the song back from Harms Music Co. The enormous number of cover versions in 1938 resulted in many more versions in the following period. A total of 48 versions of the various title variants are registered by copyright with the US collecting society ASCAP . The song was also very successful internationally. In the Soviet Union , the state jazz orchestra recorded a Russian version. The song was even played in Nazi Germany , for example by Teddy Stauffer . Zarah Leander recorded the title in Swedish in April 1938 in Stockholm. De Räuber satirized the song in 2004 under the title I drink you today beautifully .

Performers

The following list of artists offers a selection; already mentioned are not listed again:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Camden Courier-Post, January 26, 1938
  2. ↑ a b Patrick Fenton: You are with me already . In: The Gantseh Megillah, November 5, 2004
  3. ↑ Dreamtime
  4. ↑ Palomar Bigband Chronology ( Memento from July 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records . 1985, p. 26 f.
  6. ↑ ASCAP entry for You are with me
  7. ↑ Jazz in the 3rd Reich