Jewish Stereo Types

Okay, so this isn't really a Thanksgiving song; technically it's a Christmas song. But hey, any song with the lyrics "Everybody gather round the table / Dig in, dinner's being served / Eat all the turkey you are able" is going to feel awfully Thanksgiving-y, right? So here's "Turkey Lurkey Time" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, as sung by Margo Sappington, Baayork Lee, and Donna McKechnie in Promises, Promises : Video posted by Broadway Classics You will note that the song is awful. I mean, it's really awful--but in the context of the show, it was supposed to have been written by three secretaries as entertainment for the office Christmas party, so. (It also explains why the dance and orchestration say "1960s" so relentlessly.) But at least it gives us a turkey song! *** As I mentioned in my tribute to Neil Simon , the songwriters for Promises, Promises were both Jewish, even if Burt Bacharach, as a child at least, "didn...

When I went Googling searching my memory for songs appropriate to Veterans Day, I found I had pretty much the same problem I had looking for appropriate Memorial Day songs--lots and lots of lists of patriotic songs, but not so many that highlighted servicemen and -women. So I thought I would present serviceman Irving Berlin's complaint about army life during WWI, "Oh, How I Hate To Get Up in the Morning": Video posted by MuricaForever Since I've already written about Irving Berlin in posts about "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade," I thought I'd just bring you Irving Berlin himself, singing his own song. And now here's what he had to say about writing it: There were a lot of things about army life I didn't like, and the thing I didn't like most of all was reveille. I hated it. I hated it so much I used to lie awake nights thinking about how much I hated it. [But] I wanted to be a good soldier. Every morning when the bugle...