Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
'Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen' aka 'Bei mir bist du schön' (Sammy Cahn/Sholom Secunda) from a Pebble Mill programme broadcast 'live' in 1994.
The Piccadilly Dance Orchestra with vocalists Julia Shore and Michael Law.
Note the wonderful vintage BBC microphone! I remember that it was handled with great care by the technicians.
We also performed this song for Sammy Cahn and his grandson, at The Ritz Hotel in London, c. 1989. Sammy told me that it was his first big hit (especially as recorded by the Andrews Sisters) - and went on to tell me about writing 'Shoe Shine Boy' for Louis Armstrong to perform at the Cotton Club. It was exciting to meet such a legendary figure from the 'Golden Age' of songwriting.
See also: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/n...
More about the song, courtesy of Wikpedia:
'In 1938, the song was a smash hit in Nazi Germany under its Germanized title "Bei mir bist du schön".[3] According to contemporary journalist Michael Mok, the song was likewise immensely popular among the German diaspora in America where pro-Nazi sympathizers in Yorkville ale-houses often chorused the tune under the mistaken impression that it was "a Goebbels-approved" ballad.[5] Initially assumed to be an uncontroversial song in a southern German dialect, an uproar occurred when its Jewish provenance was abruptly discovered and widely publicized by the press.[33][3] Following this embarrassing discovery, as "any music by composers of Jewish ancestry was forbidden under the Nazi regime," the song was promptly banned by state authorities in Germany.[3]
Later during World War II, an unusual exception to this ban occurred: Noticing that radio audiences wished to hear American jazz, the Nazis decided to exploit such music for their propaganda efforts.[34] Accordingly, Charlie and his Orchestra—a Nazi-sponsored German propaganda swing ensemble derisively nicknamed "Goebbels' band"—recorded a state-approved anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik version of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön."[35] This version was played by Nazi broadcasters in occupied countries.[36][37] This Nazi propaganda version of the song was entitled "Anthem of the International Brotherhood of Bolsheviks" and has been credited by scholar Élise Petit with increasing anti-Semitic sentiment amid the Holocaust.[38]