Nature Boy and Yiddish

[Lori Cahan-Simon <l_cahan...>]

I came across this interesting reference.  "Nature Boy" has always been
one of my favorite songs and it turns out there is a Yiddish
connection.  I don't think I know the song mentioned below, though.
Mavens?
                        EDEN AHBEZ "Eden's Island: The Music Of An
Enchanted Isle"

          AMG: "One of the genuinely strange characters of pre-rock
American popular music, Eden Ahbez's main
        claim to fame was as the composer of "Nature Boy." The
melodically and lyrically beguiling song was a huge
         pop hit for Nat King Cole; it would be covered by many other
reputable performers, including Frank Sinatra,
           John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, and the Great Society (Grace
Slick's pre-Jefferson Airplane band). But
         Ahbez's current stature rests on a 1960 album that mixed
exotica album and beatnik poetry. It rates as one of
             the goofiest efforts in the goofy exotica genre ? and
brother, that's saying something, given the stiff
          competition. Ahbez boasted a resume as colorful and mysterious
as his music. Born Alexander Aberle in
          Brooklyn in the early 20th century, he changed his name in the
1940s shortly after moving to (where else?)
            California. A hippie a good 20 years before his time, he
cultivated a Christ-like appearance with his
           shoulder-length hair and beard. He claimed to live on three
dollars a week, sleeping outdoors with his
         family, eating vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Ahbez's big
success was getting Nat King Cole to record "Nature
           Boy," after diligently pestering some of Cole's associates at
the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles,
           where Cole was performing. Some of the luster was taken off
that triumph when a publishing company
         claimed that Ahbez had taken some of the lyrics from "Nature
Boy" from one of their copyrights, the Yiddish
           song "Schweig Mein Hertz" (the parties reached an
out-of-court settlement). Ahbez did manage to place
          another tune with Cole, "Land of Love (Come My Love and Live
with Me)." In the mid-'50s, he did some
         recording with jazz musician Herb Jeffries; he also did some
occasional composing and singing, sometimes
          for rock & roll novelty records. His most comprehensive
statement as a recording artist, however, was the
              1960 LP The Music of an Enchanted Isle, which wedded
Martin Denny-style exotica to Ahbez's
        near-stereotypical beatnik poetry. Nat King Cole, for one,
claimed that Ahbez's hippie-mystical image was no
          act. That doesn't mean that his desert-island paradise trip
doesn't sound darned silly today. It was ripe for
           revival by space-age pop aficionados in the 1990s, however,
and reissued on CD in 1995. Ahbez was
          photographed with Brian Wilson in the studio in 1966, lending
further credence to the theory that the head
         Beach Boy was influenced by exotica during the Pet Sounds and
Smile sessions. Ahbez died in 1995 after an
                                              auto accident."

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