Jewish Stereo Types

"Shakin' the Blues Away" by Irving Berlin: Videos posted by The Marriott Theatre And hey, do not skip the rope skipping! Video posted by Great Performances/PBS That interrupted number was from the 2018 revival of Holiday Inn , but it was originally written for The Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 , was used again in 1948 in Easter Parade as a number by Ann Miller, and was used yet again in 1955's Love Me or Leave Me , in which it was sung by Doris Day, playing the role of Ruth Etting, the original 1927 singer. I guess it's a really good tune for a dance number? But, hey, no complaints here, I always do love a good tap number! *** If it weren't for the fact that we've got a holiday (Shavuot) starting in a few hours, I'd try to come up with some new factoid about Irving Berlin, but since we do, I shall just put in some links to what I've already said about Irving Berlin: For those who are celebrating Easter... It's been a little minute....

Happy Easter! And for the most Easter-appropriate song I can think of, I refer you to my earlier post on "Easter Parade" and other related Irving Berlin songs . (Please do click through ; the song was already 85 years old when I posted it originally, it surely hasn't aged appreciably in an extra year or two.) (No, I still cannot write a sonnet. Don't judge me!) * * * * * Have you seen the dancing healthcare workers ? CHECK THEM OUT! You'll have to click through to the CNN article for the TikTok vids--and you should!--since I am insufficiently hip for that app. However, I know how to embed from Instagram, so...: View this post on Instagram Seeing the Doctors and Nurses of @Tjuh_pool do the #LevelUp Dance brings me so much joy. Grateful for each and every one of you! You all are on a whole nother level for how you’re working so hard and sacrificing so much to take care of everyone! LevelUp Champs. #WereInThisTogether 💪🏽❤️ A post shared by Ciara (@ciara...

Oh, look, I'm back again! Today I bring you an obvious choice for the birthday of the United States of America: Video posted by The Ed Sullivan Show "God Bless America" by Irving Berlin, sung by the man himself with the backing of the Girl and Boy Scouts of America ( to whom, as it happens, all profits from the song have gone since 1940, via the God Bless America Fund ). Now, I can just hear you gathering your breath to point out all the song's flaws--jingoistic, simplistic, schmaltzy, sappy, sickly sweet, etc., etc. ... Whatever. As it happens, Irving Berlin himself did not think it was a very good song, at least not at first. He wrote it during WWI for the army-produced show "Yip, Yip, Yaphank," but rather than use it he decided it was, as he put it, “just a little sticky,” and put it away. He only fished it out of his trunk when Kate Smith approached him for a song to sing on Armistice Day 1938, rewriting it a bit before handing it over. And here...

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...

Well, actually, no, I cannot write a sonnet. However, that's the lyric in Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade." Like "White Christmas," it was a song in 1942's Holiday Inn , sung by Bing Crosby to Marjorie Reynolds: Video posted by soccerkrazy2 although it originally appeared in Berlin's 1933 revue "As Thousands Cheer." And, like "White Christmas," it had a movie constructed around it, 1948's Easter Parade , in which Judy Garland sings it to Fred Astaire: Video posted by Gregory Maldonado I don't think it's quite so successful that way, but it's a fun film with tons of great songs. (Don't miss "We're a Couple of Swells": Video posted by gem tracker Did Fred Astaire even know how not to be elegant?) The film is perhaps most famous for a number that was deleted-- Judy Garland performing "Mr. Monotony" in the outfit she later famously wore in Summer Stock's "Get Happy"...

I don't think this song needs much of an introduction--here's "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin, sung by Bing Crosby and Martha Mears (who was voice doubling Marjorie Reynolds), in the movie Holiday Inn : Video posted by alpineic1 . (Only the first two and half minutes or so of the video are from the film.) Or, if you prefer, a cover by Bette Midler that includes the rarely-recorded first verse: Video posted by Bette Midler - Topic , provided to YouTube by Sony Music Entertainment The song was written for the aforementioned Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire vehicle Holiday Inn and became an instant classic. Crosby's version of "White Christmas" is the best selling record of all time, * the single selling at least 50 million copies; when all the various covers ( over 500 at current reckoning) are taken into account, the song is estimated to have sold over 150 million copies and there has even been an entire book written about it. All this despite--or pe...