Monday, November 15, 2010
Karim Shukry : Take Me Back To Cairo
Music video of the 60s hit by Karim Shukry. CD available for sale at:
https://www.createspace.com/1734248
also available at Amazon.com
TAKE ME BACK TO CAIRO
Music & Lyrics by
Karim Shukry
Take me back to Cairo
Beside the river Nile
My heart belongs to Cairo, Oh Cairo
Where I have found my smile
Take me back to Cairo
Beneath the silver moon
I left my heart in Cairo, Oh Cairo
The day I heard this tune
I have been yearning to go back and see my darling
And still remember the big gardens in the sun
How can I stay away so long, my heart is burning
Please take me back I want to be near my dear one
Take me back to Cairo
I've been away so long
I must return to Cairo, Oh Cairo
Again to hear that song
There is a saying that came out from the Sahara
That if you ever taste the water of the Nile
You will return again I heard it from Samara
Although you may be far away many a mile
Take me back to Cairo
Beneath the silver moon
I left my heart in Cairo, Oh Cairo
The day I heard this tune
Eternal sunshine winter, summer any season
Go there and hear the Sphinx he's talking every night
And oriental tunes they play and for a reason
They must be celebrating someone's wedding night
Take me back to Cairo
I'm sad and never smile
I must go back to Cairo, Oh Cairo
Just once again
to see-ee-ee the Nile
Take oh take me,
Take oh take me,
Take oh take me back
To Cairo
بوب (وديع) عزام Bob Azzam - Ya Mustapha , Ya Mustapha , Ana Bahebbak ya Mustafa' : O' Mustafa O Mustafa ... I love you Mustafa
BOB AZZAM (given name Waddie George Azzam) was a singer and orchestra leader of Palestinian origin. He was born in Nazareth, Palestine on October 24, 1925, grew up in Egypt (Alexandria,Egypt?), and he died in Monaco on July 24, 2004. He witnessed a great success in France in the beginning of the 1960s. Bob Azzam had a passion for art, a degree in electronic engineering, and has been regarded as the man behind the chamber of echoes "Hors-studio" or "off-studio".
Bob Azzam began his career in Italy in the late 1950s, with his band, singing in Italian and in English. In 1960, he released two songs in France that clearly had the influence of arabic and oriental music, these were: Mustafa « Chérie je t'aime, chérie je t'adore, Como la salsa de pomodoro" and "Fais-moi du couscous, chérie". The same year, he received the Grand Prix du Disque for the song Viens à Juan les Pins. Thus, he records many of the 45 rpm discs.
After this era, his success began to decline. However, Bob Azzam continued his career by touring with his orchestra, and finally opened his own night club in Geneva.
Jonathan Richman, Rachid Taha and most recently La Bande à Basile have all made covers for the songs "Mustafa" and "Fais-moi du couscous, chérie".
Bob Azzam & Miny Gérard, chant.
Giorgio Susa, saxo ténor, flûte.
Jack Sewing, basse.
Hans Felka, piano.
Gio Roselli, batterie.
Helmer Olesen, vibraphone, trompette.
Xavier Cugat - Misirlou
MISIRLOU (Greek: Μισιρλού, "Egyptian Girl"; from Turkish Mısırlı, "Egyptian"; from Arabic مصر, Miṣr, "Egypt"), is a popular Greek song with a cult-like popularity in five very diverse styles of music: Greek rebetiko, Middle-Eastern belly dancing, Jewish wedding music (Klezmer), American surf rock and international orchestral easy listening (Exotica).
The Greek word Misirlou refers specifically to a Muslim Egyptian woman (as opposed to a Christian Egyptiotissa); thus this song refers to a cross-faith, cross-race, relationship, a risqué subject at its time.
XAVIER CUGAT, born Francesco d'Asís Xavier Cugat Mingall de Bru i Deulofeu (1 January 1900 27 October 1990) was a Spanish-Catalan-Cuban-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman. In New York, his was the resident orchestra at the Waldorf-Astoria before and after World War II.
Cugat was born in Girona, in Catalonia, Spain. His family emigrated to Cuba when Xavier was five. He was trained as a classical violinist and played with the Orchestra of the Teatro Nacional in Havana. On 6 July 1915, Cugat and his family arrived in New York as immigrant passengers on board the S.S. Havana.
Miserlou: an Egyptian girl conquers America, Greek Song Music
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The song Miserlou or Misirlou is among the most well known songs of the Greek American community. Whatever its ultimate origins - whether Arabic, Turkish or Greek - it became one of the most beloved songs and dances of second and third generation Greek Americans from which it spread to the rest of the country and then the world, being one of the most internationally recorded popular tunes of the 20th century. First recorded in 1928 by Mikes Patrinos in Athens the first American version was attributed to the Greek immigrant from Egypt, Nick Roubanis. Part of a genre of songs called "Oriental" or "Anatolitiko" they were musically a synthesis of an orientalist "fantasy" of Near East music with often Latin & Hollywood influences. Miserlou is one of the first of this genre which became very popular in Greece in the 1950s with songs such as Zaira, Mandoubala, Serah, Zehra,etc. Here I present both vocal and instrumental versions as recorded in the USA by Greek (& other) Americans.