I swear on Suzy
I swear on Susi is the German title of the US foxtrot hit If You Knew Susie , which Joseph Meyer wrote together with Buddy DeSylva in 1925 . The song was originally intended for the entertainer Al Jolson in the Broadway musical Big Boy , but the Jewish comedian Eddie Cantor , who sang it on gramophone record on April 6, 1925 , led him to success .
With the text I swear to Susi, the sweet Susi , which the pop poet Fritz Löhner wrote on DeSylva's melody under his stage name “Beda”, it was also distributed in Germany. It appeared in 1925 under license from Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. Inc. New York by Anton J. Benjamin in Hamburg and was also included in Volume VIII of the collection of 20 selected dance, operetta and song hits , entitled Zum 5 Uhr Tea (Five o'clock Tea) was organized jointly by the Viennese Bohéme Verlag and the Verlag Anton J. Benjamin (AJB 8439/8, p. 20).
While Joseph Meyer's English lyrics make the singer confess that his Suzie, contrary to her inconspicuous appearance, is much wilder and more passionate than most people can imagine, Beda paints a satirical sharp picture of the flapper , the emancipated young woman of the time after the First World War as it was perceived in Germany: with men's style, drinking alcohol and playing cards, with money, but also with principles. She 'lives her life' as a bachelorette, as a garçonne , as described in Victor Margueritte 's novel of the same name in 1922:
song lyrics
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(1) Like a gentleman in his prime, This is what Missis Susie looks like today: Hair like a boy Daily in the club, Whiskey and bridge in the house. Do you want to know something about Susie? Do you have to ask Mister Bobby White. He is related With her aunt '. He'll let you know right away: |
(2) All men are the Susie beep. Love is deleted from the program. Once as a bride Skin they knock out Your masters bridegroom. Susie has a lot of money, but also principles And she lives her life in a very modern way As a bachelor And in the hotel Most gentlemen say: |
I swear by Susie, sweet Susie Oh she doesn't go with you! I know Susie, where do you know her? Oh oh, nothing to be done, nothing to be done. I'll pay a thousand dollars for it A thousand dollars if I find out about her Because I know Susie She has no G'spusi, No - except with me! |
(German text by Beda)
Audio documents
I swear Susi was played on gramophone records by the orchestras Dajos Béla (Odeon AA 50 417 / O-7256, Matr. XxBo 8657), Marek Weber (Parlophon P. 2152-II, Matr. 2-8520), Bernard Etté (Vox 08042, Matr. 2545-A), Efim Schachmeister (Grammophon 19 445, Matr. 122 bg), Arpád Városz (Homocord B.1911, Matr. M 18 597) and an unknown “orchestra with singing” on Derby brown V-601 b (Mat. 601 B). For owners of electric pianos, the composition was also available on piano rolls .
Live on
The song If You Knew Susie was used in the 1948 feature film Anchors Aweigh , which was shown in Germany under the distribution title Urlaub in Hollywood , where Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly sang it as interludes; a feature film with the hit title If You Knew Susie was made in the same year with the participation of Eddie Cantor.
In Germany, the song was still alive after 1945: the pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel played the piece as “Schräger Otto” on a deliberately detuned piano in honky-tonk style in 1955 ; In 1954, American jazz accordionist John Serry senior recorded the song for RCA Records (RCA Thesaurus, 1954); British hit clown Chris Howland sang it in English-German on an LP to accompany a Dixieland band. And the Belgian violinist André Rieu recorded the title with his “Johann Strauss String Orchestra”.
Web links
- Note title page "Le grand succés d'Amérique" (licensed edition Salabert in Paris)
- Note title page edition for Scandinavia at Musikaliska Knuten in Stockholm
Individual evidence
- ↑ Title of the sheet music with picture by Jolson. at yorku.ca
- ↑ Fig. Of the title sheet with illustration by Willy Herzig at abebooks.com (updated April 20, 2016)
- ↑ reproduced from a contemporary song book in Gothic script "Gassenhauer des Jahres 1926" at grammophon-platten.de
- ↑ with Refraingesang, pressed February 9, 1926, to be heard on YouTube
- ↑ cf. lotz-verlag.de , to be heard on YouTube
- ↑ z. B. on CONCERT green label, no Nº, then at the beginning “Rollos Concert interpretados por AJ Wells, Industria Argentina” , to be heard on YouTube , on Rollo PAMPA # 3804, to be heard on YouTube , on QRS roll # 3170 played by Arden and Kortlander in 1925, available on YouTube or on Mel-O-Dee Song Roll # 47007 played by Alan Moran, available on YouTube
- ↑ cf. IMDb
- ↑ cf. Film clip, posted on YouTube
- ↑ cf. IMDb ; Film clip from 1948 with Eddie Cantor on YouTube
- ↑ listen on YouTube
- ^ Who Is Who in Music International 1958 . Publisher: Who Is Who in Music International, Chicago, IL, USA. Biographical File # B11719 for John Serry. Current publisher: International biographical Center, Cambridgeshire, UK
- ↑ "in the Bonnie & Clyde-Sound" (so on the LP label "The Great Twenties") to be heard on YouTube
- ↑ listen on YouTube
