A trip to downtown Bucharest
This song belongs to Aaron Lebedeff at least as much as the songs in My Fair Lady belong to Rex Harrison. (I believe it is a felony to sing Rex’s song without trying to imitate him.) [Look for Aaron's singing in the post below this one.]
Aaron made his mark in the 1920s and since then, hundreds, maybe thousands, have tried to imitate him. Knowing it is futile, the super great Barry Sisters tried their own interpretation.
The song’s conclusion is cut off. Still, magnificent. The Barry Sisters flourished in the 40s and 50s and were the Jewish response to The Andrew Sisters. The Barrys were jazzier and had far more swing. I first heard Lebedeff imitators when Danny Kaye sang Rumania in a 1940s movie. Can’t locate it any longer. Mickey Katz’s son, Joel Grey, sings it. So does Johnny Cash!!! Astonishingly well, too.) Youtube probably can give you a dozen other would-be’s.
If you really are crazy enough to want to try your own luck alongside these pros, start with an easy English version. I cannot vouch for the translation but it looks right to a patzer like me. Try singing it alongside the Barrys or, better yet, Aaron L. Once again, you’ll find the link to Aaron in the post immediately below this one.
Oh Rumania, Rumania, Rumania, Rumania, Rumania, Rumania, Rumania.
Was such a lovely place, I just can’t explain ye.
Oh Rumania, Rumania, Rumania, Rumania, Rumania, Rumania, Rumania.
It was once a land so fine with milk and honey .
If you lived there it was such a pleasure.
What you wanted you got in full measure.
A mameligele, a pastrami, a sausage with bread, pastrami, karnatzele (a kind of smoked meat similar to jerky)
And a glass of good wine, aha!
In Rumania all is well,
If there’s trouble you can’t tell [They don’t know any worries].
They drink everywhere,
They chase their drinks with Kashkaval (a sheep’s milk yellow cheese).
Now comes the impossible part if you want to sing in tempo.
Hay di-gi di-gi dam, di-gi di-gi di-gi dam.
Hay di-gi di-gi di-gi di-gi di-gi dam.
Hay di-gi di-gi dam, di-gi di-gi di-gi dam.
Hay di-gi di-gi di-gi di-gi di-gi dam.
There are lots more hay di-gi-di-gi-di-gi dams but that’s enough. If any of you are dirty, hook-nosed, kinky-haired Kikes, here’s a link to a Yiddish version. Yeah, when I was 13, I probably could have read this stuff.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~verele/studentprojects/0506/rumenye.htm
Hey, did you hear the one about the Yid greenhorn who wins a $10 million lottery within one week of coming to America? Before an assembled crowd of a dozen newspaper men (i.e. newspaper people) he says, “Vot a countrree. Vot a vunderful countrree. Only in America. I vant thanks God, and all you, and my beloved vife and…and… [he looks down at his wrist and sees the lottery numbers] and Herr Hitler for giving me the vinning combination!”
What sick perversion turns people AWAY FROM anti-Semitism?
