Some more on Misirlou

[Eva Broman]

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