Re: Dreydl (English Words)

[BarMusProd <BarMusProd...>]

Dear Itzik and Listers,

I haven't been following this thread much--I guess I should have been, but I 
have an intense dislike for this song, which obviously has a richer history 
than I would have thought, based on it's simplistic melody, and that it seems 
to be the only Chanukah song that is printed in educational texts (I hope 
that has changed from my childhood). If the following has already been beaten 
to death, my apologies. Itzik wrote:

In a message dated 12/14/01 9:01:46 AM, gottesman (at) 
yiddish(dot)forward(dot)com writes:

>The Yiddish "Ikh bin a kleyner dreydl" was first - im almost certain. 
>
>In the yiddish lyrics the dreydl is made out of lead (the older 
>
>tradition), and in english, out of clay. Mikhl Gelbart was the 
>
>composer Samuel S.Grossman was the writer according to the Freedman 
>
>Collection's database on line. It is a little confusing in that 
>
>listing, but all the earlier recordings (in this case early 60s) 
>
>credit Gelbart. I don't remember hearing the English version to the 
>
>late 60s or 70s and we were singing the Yiddish before then.Gelbart 
>
>died in1966.
>
The English version has been around longer than that certainly. I sang it as 
a child in the 50s. I looked in Coopersmith's _The Songs We Sing_, copyright 
1950, and it has the English version only (no Yiddish lyrics). So it already 
had to have been popular by then. The credits list S. E. Goldfarb as the 
composer, and words by S. S. Grossman.

Best wishes,
Steve

Steve Barnett
Composer/Arranger/Producer
Barnett Music Productions
BarMusProd (at) aol(dot)com 

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