Re: Some more on Misirlou

[Joel Bresler <joel.br...>]

Hi, we discussed Miserlou also in Jan, 2000. See 
http://shamash.org/listarchives/jewish-music/000103

My understanding is that it was copywritten by an "R.N. Roubanis" 
(=Rumbanis?) Perhaps he just claimed a folk song. Wouldn't be the first 
time that had happened. The Jack Mayesh recording definitely predates the 
1943 registration noted below. There is also a post on Google groups about 
the origins. The complete thread is interesting too.

>From: Paul M. Gifford
>Subject: Re: Miserlou origins
>Newsgroups: alt.music.jewish
>Date: 1996/09/06
>
>
>In article <50p5ai$cef (at) netnews(dot)upenn(dot)edu> (George A Pasles) 
>writes:
> >Subject: Re: Miserlou origins
> >Date: 6 Sep 1996 12:26:58 GMT
> >Miserlou is of Greek origin, it's initial version written by Nicholas 
> Rubanus(sp) who in the
> >40's or 50's went to my Mom's Greek Orthodox church in Atlantic City.His 
> name is listed as one
> >of the authors.  This is true.
>
>I've got an old LP which says that Nicholas Roubanis wrote it on the back 
>of a
>restaurant napkin; it had to be in the '30s, as it was recorded then.  There
>is an earlier Greek recording of it from 1928 or, entitled "Mousourloum," so
>apparently all Roubanis did was to copyright it and maybe write words.  I've
>got a Seymour Rechtzeit recording of it in Yiddish, from the early '40s.

Hope this helps,

Joel

At 03:23 PM 6/2/2003 +0200, you wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>
>I haven't had the opportunity to read the digests for a while, so I'm a 
>little behind in the discussions. However, the mention of "Misirlou" 
>caught my eye. Since I am a lot more familiar with Greek music than with 
>Yiddish/klezmer music, I knew "Misirlou" in its Greek versions, rather 
>than in the Yiddish/American ones! I happened to read about the song on 
>another list, and according to this info, the Greek-American music teacher 
>Nikos Rumbanis registered (which I presume means that he "copywrighted") 
>"Misirlou" in 1943. It then had a jazz ("beguine") style. The original 
>poster mentions that it was popular among the Greeks of Kairo, and often 
>played by Greek-Egyptian jazz orchestras in the fifties. It is also 
>mentioned that it could be an Armenian folk song originally. It would be 
>interesting to know the origins of the song, if they can be traced. 
>Anyway, the title is Greek: Misirlou means "woman from Misr (Egypt)", 
>which fits well with the song's "oriental" feel. The Yiddish lyrics are 
>also very similar to the Greek ones, which is probably due to the fact 
>that they were translated from the original English lyrics (which I don't 
>know!). I don't know if this applies to klezmer tunes, but in many Greek 
>songs, Oriental women are often portrayed as especially alluring and 
>exotic, like the beautiful Misirlou.
>
>Apologies if all this is already old news!
>
>One nice Greek version by this song is done by Roma singer Manolis 
>Angelopoulos, which is quite fitting, since he often recorded songs that 
>were either original Middle Eastern tunes or in a quasi-Middle Eastern style.
>
>All the best, Eva Broman
>



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

781-862-4104 (Telephone & FAX)
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