Hava nagila, have two nagilas, have three nagilas; they're very small.

May 27, 2008 6:52 PM

Claire and Merna Bagelman, better known as The Barry Sisters. Every Sunday from 1938 to 1955 on WHN in New York, they mashed Swing with Yiddish Folk as the main attraction on the radio program Yiddish Melodies in Swing.[via] "We take a tune that's sweet and low, and we rock it solid and make it gold." They are indeed a Hebrew National Kosher Classic. More Yiddish music webceptacles.

It's Yiddish swing time,
it's always springtime,
every Sunday at 1!

It's Yiddish swing time,
it's dance and sing time.
Come on, Let's have fun!

Sit, bubbellah, and listen to some tunes on the Youtube radio.
• Vi iz dus geseleh?
• Coney Island
• The Passover Medley
• Yidl Mitn Fidl
• Chiribim, Chiribom (?) and Tum Balalaika
• Eshet Chail (linked to above)
• Halevai (with Moishe Oysher)
• Tzena
• Channa from Havanna (video picture pastiche documenting Jews in Cuba)
• Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
• several bits of tunes overlaid with some footage...
• ...and of course, הבה נגילה (Hava Nagila)!

posted by not_on_display (8 comments total)

Vaht's this? The Bagelman sisters? Nevah heard of 'em!

Which is one of the reasons I'm favoriting this post. Fantastic! On the strength of that Bagelman link alone, I am already a major fan! My wife, overhearing that one, loves it, too. Thanks, n_o_d.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:04 PM on May 27, 2008

My favorite as a kid was "In Meina Oigen Bistie Shain," but I can't find that on Youtube.
posted by LSK at 8:10 PM on May 27, 2008

Love them. I first heard "Mir Bist du Shoen" (?) on a lazy Sunday summer afternoon on the radio (about two years ago) and it stood out a mile from everything else. I can't find it online but here are the Andrews sisters doing a fun though less amazing version of it.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:17 PM on May 27, 2008

LobsterMitten and LSK: this link starts out with "Bei Mir Bist Di Schoen" which seems to be the one that kickstarted the whole Yiddish Swing thing (the Andrews Sisters reviving the song from an old musical).
posted by not_on_display at 8:59 PM on May 27, 2008

I have old YMiS shows on cassette somewhere around here, a weird gift from a friend working at the Old Towne School of Folk Music. I never knew exactly wtf it was or heard any more of it. This is totally fun. The Coney Island link has some great old video footage too. "Oh Mr Schwartz, those patent leather shorts!" I have been on the Wonder Wheel and it is freaking SCARY.
posted by jessamyn at 9:43 PM on May 27, 2008

I sent this thread to my mother, and here's what she sent back. Not yiddish swing, more like yiddish rock.
posted by Araucaria at 11:18 PM on May 27, 2008

Those bottle dancers performing in the Hava Nagila clip are 100 different types of awesome. If I was having myself a Bar Mitzvah or a wedding, I'd hire them in a flash.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:39 PM on May 27, 2008

oh thanks. WWOZ new orleans did a special on the bagelmans a while back, and i had forgotten to look them up.
posted by eustatic at 1:02 AM on May 28, 2008