Yiddish Curiosities: a library of wonderful but forgotten Yiddish songs from the late 1920s and after (includes Polish Jewish Cabaret). Have a listen!

A fellow from the Netherlands asked me nicely, twice, if I had the sheet music for Da Yiddisha Charleston, which I didn't, but I do now because I just transcribed it from the Nathan Glazer Orchestra version available on youtube (there are quite a few other versions on youtube, old and relatively new).

If there was originally a verse for the song, it doesn't appear to exist on the available recordings.




I transcribed some of the instrumental (non singing) bits but not all of them. Recordings of this song seem to slip in little bits of whatever recognizable Jewish tunes the arrangers thought of off the tops of their heads. You can do the same! Here's the sheet music:

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Note this is one of quite a few songs that allude to commingling of the of the Jews and the Irish. Also, note that "Henry Ford is learning how to Yidishe Charleston now." He was a famous anti-Semite.

Lyrics to Yiddisha Charleston follow the jump:



Oy that- oy that Yiddishe Charleston
Oy that - oy that Yiddishe Charleston
You should see the Cohens and Kellys doing it everywhere.
Oy that - oy that Yiddishe Charleston
Oy that - oy that Yiddishe Charleston
Butchers, bakers, button-hole makers doing it everywhere
Millionaires with big personalities doing it every night
Millionaires of all nationalities being Israelite.
Oy that - oy that Yiddishe Charleston
Oy that - oy that Yiddishe Charleston
Henry Ford is learning how to Yiddishe Charleston now.

Labels: humor & satire, klezmer, modernity, yiddish theater song