Re: Nature Boy and Yiddish

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Hi Bob.

Sorry.

The one collection I have, a tape of "Herman Yablokoff
in Concert at the Yiddish Theatre", does not include this song.

I don't know if he ever recorded it himself or if Greater Recording Co.
put out any additional Yablokoff material than the one collection.

There is no information in his book, that I could find.

Perhaps Henry Sapoznik would know.

Wolf



wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com wrote:

> Wolf,
>
> Would you recommend a recording of Shvayg, Mayn Harts?
>
> Bob
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kame'a Media <media (at) kamea(dot)com>
> To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Date: Thursday, October 26, 2000 7:09 AM
> Subject: Re: Nature Boy and Yiddish
>
> >
> >
> >Lori Cahan-Simon wrote:
> >
> >> 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?
> >
> >It was "copied" from =Shvayg, Mayn Harts= by Herman Yablokoff,
> >often billed as "the Yiddish Pagliacci" (sp?)
> >and composer of the immortal "Papirossen".
> >
> >His biography says he settled for 25 Gs -- pretty good in those days,
> >considering Sholem Secunda parted with "Bei Mir Bistu Shayn" for 50
> bucks
> >--although he was given some monies years later,
> >after the song became a world =shlager= for the Andrews Sisters.
> >
> >
> >Wolf Krakowski
> >
> >>
> >>                         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."
> >>
> >
> >----------------------
> jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+
> >