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Miserlou (was: Jews and the Blues)



Ah, the long, strange journey of Miserlou, from Greek line dance 
(originally written by R.N. Roubanis; also used in Israeli folkdancing) to 
surfer ode to (last I heard it) a car commercial (Mitsubishi?) Also one of 
the very, very few melodies that I've heard on both straight Klezmer and 
straight Sephardic recordings. Jack Mayesh translated it into Ladino and 
recorded his version ca. 1940s.

Sorry I don't have a chord chart, but it's ubiquitous. Surely someone else 
will.

Best,

Joel

R. N. Roubanis is most likely the author of the original Greek melody.
Leeds and Wise get credit for the English lyrics. My guess is that Wise
wrote the English adaptation and Leeds got part of the copyright for
publishing them.At 06:15 PM 1/3/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Cantor DJ,
>
>A good resource is Andy Cohen 725 - 6976.  He's taught a blues class at U of
>M and blues are his specialty, esp. Rev. Gary Davis.  He also is conversant
>in Yiddish.
>
>Ran across a tune called "Miserlou" that I really like.  Do you know anything
>about it?  If so, do you have a chord chart?
>
>Anita
>



Joel Bresler
250 E. Emerson Rd.
Lexington, MA 02420 USA

Home:           781-862-2432
Home Office:    781-862-4104
FAX:            781-862-0498
Cell:           781-622-0309
Email:          jbresler (at) ma(dot)ultranet(dot)com

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