Bing Crosby: Brother Can You Spare A Dime?
Posted by clarkspicks in broadway, jazz, music, show tunes, tags: broadway, brother can you spare a dime, E Y Harburg, George Gershwyn, Jay Gorney, jazz, musicals, show tunesIn 1929 E.Y.”Yip” Harburg was a co-owner of the Consolidated Electrical Appliance Company. He wrote poetry, which was sometimes published in the local newspapers. After the stock market crash Harburg was unemployed and $50,000 in debt. His high school and college friend, George Gershwyn introduced Harburg to composer Jay Gorney and the two went to work writing songs for a show Earl Carroll’s Sketchbook. Harburg and Gorney collaborated on several shows, including the 1932 production Americana, for which they wrote Brother Can You Spare A Dime. The song was recorded in 1932 by both Rudy Vallee and Bing Crosby. Both recordings were hits and became the soundtrack of the 1932 Presidential election, in which Franklin Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover.
Yip Harburg went on to write lyrics to many Broadway shows and Hollywood musicals. His best known work was The Wizard of Oz, for which he was the head screenwriter in addition to collaborating with Harold Arlen on all of the songs.
I heard a wonderful analysis of Brother Can You Spare A Dime on NPR’s Weekend Edition this morning, by composer Rob Kapilow. Here is Bing Crosby’s 1932 recording, set to a series of photos from the Great Depression.
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I remember listening to Bings songs, at my grandfathers, growing up….that was my taste of the good life (musically speaking). Great article. Brings back so many memories.
P.S. The vinyl was probably 30 years old and scratchy but, when you were playing Hearts , with your family. Who cared.
As Always
Peace
I also heard the NPR segment the other day, and reminded me of what a great song “brother” still is. The NPR piece was done very well I thought. Dissecting the song piece by piece was very interesting. Although, I was disappointed that the prelude was not mentioned at all. I especially liked Daniel Shore’s rendering.
As a lifelong musician I find myself these days researching songs on the I-Net and am constantly amazed at what can be unearthed.
Going to Amazon.com and searching “brother ” actually turned up about 90 different versions. The two that really stood out for me were the ones from Tim O’Brien (his version includes the prelude) and Mary Flower, Both wonderfully done.
Call me old-fashioned, but I like the Weavers’ version. I’ve been doing “Brother” for about 10 years. The NPR piece changed the way I hear it. I agree, it would have been nice to have heard what Kapilow had to say about the intro. Those are not throwaway lines.
Have sung “Brother..” for more than 40 years as a Barbershop Quartet Society member, in 4 part harmony. Of the several thousand songs I’ve sung, this remains the most moving.