"Yosl" (was: multfilm / tango)

[Robert A. Rothstein <rar...>]

SICULAR (at) aol(dot)com wrote:

> there's also a glasnost'-era film about the NKVD in the 1930s which has the
> melody of Yosl, Yosl in the background; it made me wonder if that tune had
> been borrowed from a Russian folk song.  any ideas?

        Although there are at least two Russian texts set to the melody (the
chorus) of "Yosl," one about a tractor driver in Birobidzhan named Yosele, I
suspect that the melody went from here to the Soviet Union (thanks to the
popularity of the Yiddish or English versions) rather than vice versa.  (There
were apparently Finnish-language recordings of "Yosl" in the late thirties, so
the melody did get around.)
            Bob Rothstein

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+