The Yiddish language, that amalgam of ancient Hebrew spicing a Teutonic soup, is not the first choice I’d have for a smouldering, sexy, romantic tongue to pleasure a love interest with. My opinion has, admittedly, been colored by watching cartoons where some Yiddish songs have been featured, as well as checking out the occasional vaudeville act on YouTube.
Still, Yiddish musicians had a tremendous effect on music during the early part of the Twentieth Century, and it is a bit of a shame that the language has pretty much died out since Hebrew was reintroduced into Israel and accepted, more or less, by the diaspora.
Perhaps the most well-known song with a Yiddish pedigree is Jay Jacob’s and Sholom Secunda’s hit, ‘Bei Mir Bistu Shein (Yiddish: בייַ מיר ביסטו שיין, “To Me You’re Beautiful”)’. The most well-known version of the song, recorded by The Andrews Sisters, features lyrics reworked by legendary songwriter Sammy Cahn. It tooks me years to figure out the romantic angle of the song because I had always associated it with the ridiculous Warner Brothers cartoon character Egghead, replete with the “woopie-doopie” after every line.
Here are a few versions of the song:
The Budapest Klezmer Band (in Yiddish):
Zarah Leander (smouldering in German):
Max Raabe und Palast Orchster (going modern):
Max Raabe – Bei mir bist du schoen
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The Andrews Sisters (the most popular version in the States):
