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Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish


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Published: Oct 9, 2007

Sun., Oct. 14, 11 a.m., $15-$20 includes brunch, Gershman Y, 401 S. Broad St., 215-446-3021, www.gershmany.org

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George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Al Jolson, Jerome Kern, Sophie Tucker and Oscar Hammerstein II were among the most famous Jewish-American composers, lyricists and singers of the first half of the 20th century, but you might not immediately guess their heritage based solely on their songs. Listen closely, though, and you can hear how the Jewish taam (Yiddish for "taste") found its way into both their work and the work of non-Jewish composers.

Did you know that in 1926 Cole Porter wrote a song called "Hot-House Rose," about a Jewish sweatshop girl? Or that Judy Garland made a recording of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" ("To Me, You're Beautiful")? In Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood (State University of New York Press, $40), writer and composer Jack Gottlieb teases out the influence of Yiddish tunes secular and religious, the Yiddish language and that intangible taam on popular music from WWI to the early 1960s.

At the Gershman Y this Sunday, Gottlieb will demonstrate the similarities between synagogue melodies and classic American songs by playing them side by side on the piano, paying special attention to Irving Berlin (who was notoriously obsessive about the copyrights of his music, but who blithely lifted from Yiddish playwright and composer Abraham Goldfaden). The book, with an accompanying CD, will be available for sale and signing.