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By Recorded Sound Archives, February 3, 2016 3:19 pm

If there’s one type of song that we will never grow tired of, it is the ever popular love song. Mellow or upbeat, mushy or filled with angst; whatever the tempo or the lyrical content…Enjoy these nine timeless love songs from the 1920s found in the Recorded Sound Archives Vintage, Judaic and Jazz collections just in time for Valentines day.

Nine Timeless Love Songs of the 1920s

1.  Ain’t Misbehavin’ by Fats Waller written in 1929 by Thomas “Fats” Waller himself, Harry Brooks and Andy Razaf.
2. All Alone by Al Jolson, written by Irving Berlin and published in 1924.
3. April Showers by Al Jolson, written by B.G. DeSylva music composed by Louis Silvers originally published in 1921.
4. Blue Skies by The Hour of Charm Girl Orchestra and Choir, written and composed by Irving Berlin in 1926.
5. I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me by Artie Shaw, written by Jimmy McHugh and Clarence Gaskill in 1926.
6. With a Song in My Heart by Dennis Day, originally written for the musical Spring is Here by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers in 1929.
7. What’ll I Do? by Henry Burr and Marcia Freer, written by Irving Berlin in 1923.
8. Who’s Sorry Now? by Ernest Stevens, written by Bert Kalmer and Harry Ruby composed by Ted Snyder this song was published in 1923 and featured in the 1950 film, Three Little Words.
9. Everybody Loves My Baby (But My Baby Don’t Love Nobody but Me) by Aileen Stanley, composed by Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams in 1924.

Some songs may only be available as snippets due to US Copyright laws.

These items are noted in the player with the words (Research Station) and only allow for 45 seconds snippets to be played to give you a sense of what that recording originally sounded like. Full access is available through the RSA’s Research Station access is limited to educators, students and serious researchers.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, January 25, 2016 3:51 pm

The Recorded Sound Archives has digitized a collection of cantorial music by Cantor Shloimele Rothstein , one of over 260 Cantorial voices to choose from in the RSA’s Cantorial Collection.

Born in Bessarabia on May 1, 1891 in the town of Falesty. He was the first Cantor to sing on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh in 1926 and was contracted by Columbia Grafonola to produce phonograph recordings along with being Cantor at Synagogue B’nai Israel in Brooklyn, NY.

Shloimele’s only teacher was Jerome Hayes of whom he learned several operas with. As a result, he was offered the leading tenor role in “La Juive” by an Opera Co., but refused the offer to give his attention to the Synagogue, Phonograph and Concert work. He passed away on October 19, 1966, at the age of 75.

He is also known as Shlomo Rothstein, Sol Rothstein & Solomon Rothstein.

To listen the voice and recordings of Shloimele Rothstein, click here.

To discover other cantorial voices, please visit the Recorded Sound Archives Cantorial Voices collection.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, December 4, 2015 3:47 pm

The Recorded Sound Archives loves sharing the gift of music during the holiday season, especially Chanukah music. This year the Recorded Sound Archives has put together a wonderful collection called Songs of Chanukah that will entertain and delight the entire family with over 50 albums to choose from such as the Children’s Village Choir singing Hanukkah is Here to Kenny Ellis with Hanukkah Swings. The songs in this collection express the essence of the holiday with children’s songs that teach about the holiday,  traditional songs and a new twist on old favorites.

Please accept this gift of music for you and your family from the Recorded Sound Archives along with our best wishes for a Happy Chanukah!

Click here to view this collection.

Click here to view past blog posts on Chanukah.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, September 28, 2015 3:33 pm

Did you know the Recorded Sound Archives at FAU Libraries has over 49,000 albums along with over 150,000 songs in its databases, which is growing everyday with the help of volunteers? With so many recordings to choose from, we have given Research Station users the ability to request items be digitized.

See a recording that hasn’t been digitized?

As a research station user you can request it using the Music on Demand forms on the website.

Please note, due to copyright some of these recordings may only play for 45 second snippet to give the user a taste of what this music sounded like back in the day, if you are interested in full access considering applying for Research Station Access.

Below you’ll find a list of recordings that were recently added in September by Collection from requests made by Research Station Users.

Judaic Collection

Prayers from Jerusalem by Naftali Herstik

Zemirot – Turkish-Sephardic Synagogue Hymns  by Los Pasharos Sefaradis

Oriental Song Festival 1973 by Various Artists

A Song of the Heights by Andrew Edison & Norman Summers

Tanchumim by Various Artists

A World of Jewish Music by Allan Michelson

Blue Star Camp – 1984 by Ted Grey

30 Golden Moments of Music by The Epstein Brothers

Lamenatseach Shir Mizmor – Oriental Song Festival 1974 – Volume 2 by Various Artists

Tsur Mi’Shelo Achalnu – Famous Traditional Sephardic Hymns by Renanim Choir

Achva by Various Artists

Ismach Moshe by Sawel Kwartin

Al Taschlicheinu by Sawel Kwartin

Erev Shel Shoshanim by Various Artists

Gems of the Synagogue by Josef Rosenblatt

My Mother’s Sabbath Candles (Sung in Yiddish) by The Malavsky Family

Vintage Collection

The Bells of St. Mary’s by Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra

Featured Collection

Hit of the Week Collection

High Holy Days Collection

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By Recorded Sound Archives, September 14, 2015 2:25 pm

In years past, the Recorded Sound Archives Judaic collection or the Judaica Sound Archives as most know it has highlighted the music of Leibele Waldman, Gershon Sirota and Moishe Oysher for the High Holy Days along with some of today’s finest cantors.

This year the Recorded Sound Archives has created a High Holy Days collection for you to  share and enjoy with your family. Included in this collection is a mixture of cantors, and other musicians such as Shimon and Ilana Gewirtz, Ramon Tasat and Cindy Paley.

Click here to view this collection.

Click here to view past blog posts on the High Holy Days.

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By RSA Guest Blogger, August 24, 2015 6:53 pm

Theodore Bikel on stage as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

With his grey beard, clear voice, and room filling performance, Theodore Bikel had so much in common with Tevye the Milkman. He was the fiddler on the roof, a versatile man.

Theodore Bikel, actor, activist and folk singer, passed away at the age of 91 last month on July 21, 2015 in Los Angeles. He played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof onstage in thousands of performances, created the role of Baron von Trapp in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music, recorded as a singer and guitarist for many albums in different languages, and was involved in civil rights causes.

Bikel was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, and named after Zionist Theodore Herzl. They fled to Palestine in 1938. and according to his mother in his autobiography, he sang before he could talk. Theodore started acting at a young age and performed in the Habimah Theatre in Tel Aviv in 1943. Bikel moved to London in 1945 and next to the United States in 1954, where he started his acting career on Broadway.

Bikel released thirteen albums between 1955 to 1965. The most popular recordings were: Theodore Bikel Sings Jewish Folk Songs (1958), Songs of a Russian Gypsy (1958), Theodore Bikel Sings More Jewish Folk Songs (1959), A Harvest of Israel Folk Songs (1961), and Theodore Bikel Sings Yiddish Theatre and Folk Songs (1965). With this repertoire, he paved the way for a renewed interest in Yiddish folk songs, and ultimately for the klezmer revival in the late seventies.

Along with folk singer Pete Seeger, Bikel became one of the founders of the Newport Folk Festival in 1959. This festival is known for the performances of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan in 1963 and played a crucial role in the American folk music revival of the sixties.

Just recently, a documentary film was released about the intertwining of Theodore Bikel’s life with writer Sholom Aleichem, the great storyteller of Jewish life in Eastern Europe: Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem. In March this year, Record Sound Archives’ Alethea Perez wrote a blog about this portrait. click here to read more.

Listed below are some of his popular tunes.

 Dona Dona

Di Mame Iz Gegangen

Az Der Rebbe Zingt

Dodi Li

 Click here for more Theodore Bikel recordings.

Due to copyright concerns only snippets can be heard on the RSA public website. Full versions are available to users of the RSA Research Station.

If you enjoyed this guest blog post you may enjoy Gone but not forgotten – the Barry Sisters.

RSA Guest Blogger, Niels Falch, is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and is currently writing a dissertation on the influence of Jewish music in American popular songs.

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By Alethea Perez, March 31, 2015 6:16 pm

Passover is all about retelling the story. And what better way to celebrate than to enjoy this modern day interpretation of an old story.

Our Passover gift to you! This Passover-themed parody of Uptown Funk by Six13. It is so catchy, it just might get stuck in your head all through Passover, which begins the evening of April 3 and ends the evening of April 11.

The Recorded Sound Archives has compiled a mix of Passover songs that the whole family can enjoy.  From Cantorial splendor to children’s play-songs, music expresses the heart of the Jewish people. Give Jewish music a special place in your home for the  holidays.

In the past we’ve highlighted each album, individually, this year we’ve created a special collection featuring all of our passover music: https://rsa.fau.edu/passover-collection All the songs  in this compilation can be heard all year long on the RSA website.

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By Recorded Sound Archives, March 19, 2015 11:58 pm

Introduced in 1930 and discontinued in 1932, these records were made from a flexible synthetic resin (Durium) coated on brown paper.

What are sound recordings made of?

Initially sound was recorded on wax cylinders. By the end of the 1920s, however, recordings were made of a heavy, fragile shellac compound.

Producers began looking for better options and started experimenting with materials that were lighter, flexible and less fragile.

One of these experiments, Hit of the Week records, were actually made of resin coated brown paper! This lightweight, flexible, “unbreakable” composition was unique and provided a 78 rpm recording with sound equal to or better than ordinary shellac.

Beginning in February 1930 a new recording featuring a current “hit” song was released each week. They were sold at newsstands, likemagazines, with past issues being available by mail order. They were recorded on one side only and sold for 15 to 20 cents per recording. The unrecorded side was often printed with advertising or the performer’s portrait. They had a tendency to curl up over time and came in flimsy rice paper sleeves.

The unrecorded paper side of Hit of the Week recordings were sometimes printed with advertising a performer’s portrait, in this case Morton Downey.

These recordings were a big hit with the public in the early days of the Great Depression and provided easy, cheap entertainment to the masses. However, as the depression wore on sales slumped. the last Hit of the Week issue was released in June 1932.

The Recorded Sound Archives at FAU Libraries is pleased to share 39 of these original recordings with our website users. Due to US Copyright laws only 45-second snippets are available on our public website.  Full recordings are available to RSA Research Station users.

Click here to see and hear the Hit of the Week collection.

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By Alethea Perez, March 9, 2015 7:53 pm

Portraits of two beloved icons–Sholom Aleichem and Theodore Bikel–are woven together in this enchanting new documentary. The two men have much in common: wit, wisdom and talent, all shot through with deep humanity and Yiddishkeit.

Theodore Bikel, the unstoppable performer whose career spans more than 150 screen roles (including an Oscar-nominated turn in “The Defiant Ones”) and countless stage and musical productions, is also the foremost interpreter of Sholom Aleichem’s work. Now 90, Bikel has played Tevye the Milkman on stage more than 2,000 times, and he has animated Aleichem’s work through his creation of two celebrated musical plays about the great Russian author.

The new film Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem combines Bikel’s charismatic storytelling and masterful performances with a broader exploration of Aleichem’s remarkable life and work.

A pioneer of modern Jewish literature who championed and luxuriated in the Yiddish language, Sholom Aleichem created dozens of indelible characters. His Tevye the Milkman, Motl the Cantor’s Son, and Menachem Mendl–“shtetl Jews” for whom humor and pathos were two sides of the same Yiddish coin–remain invaluable windows into pre-war Eastern European Jewish life, real and imagined.

Watch the Trailer!

Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem (Trailer) from National Center for Jewish Film on Vimeo.

The National Center for Jewish Film is a unique, independent nonprofit motion picture archive and distributor. This month several screenings of Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem will be presented across Florida.

Below you will find information on these screenings and where tickets can be purchased.

	Sarasota, FL – March 8 & 10 2015 Jewish Film Festival of Sarasota-Manatee OPENING NIGHT WITH THEODORE BIKEL RECEPTION FOLLOWING Sunday, March 8, 6:30 pm at Hyatt Regency Sarasota Encore Screening (film only) Tuesday, March 10, 3pm at Jewish Federation See Festival website for tickets
	Tampa, FL – Friday, March 13, 2015 Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival  Friday, March 13, 1:15 pm at Villagio Cinemas North Tampa Buy Tickets! LIMITED SEATING
	Delray Beach, FL  – March 13-19 Week Theatrical Run March 13-19 Tickets and showtimes coming soon!
	Lake Worth, FL  – March 13-19 Week Theatrical Run March 13-19 Tickets and showtimes coming soon!

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By Alethea Perez, March 9, 2015 2:26 pm

Did you know Star Trek’s Mr. Spock was Jewish?

Leonard Nimoy  passed away February 27, 2015 in Los Angeles at the age of 83.

The son of Yiddish speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Soviet Union, Nimoy began acting at the age of 8.

He starred in minor movie roles through the 1950s,  but he is probably best remembered for his role as Spock. Nimoy captivated audiences in his role as the half Vulcan, half human Spock in the original Star Trek TV series (1966-1969), and earned himself three Emmy nominations. He later appeared in numerous Star Trek and other films and directed Nimoy directed Star Trek III: The Search for Spock in 1984 and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in 1986.

The Vulcan salute, which became identified with him was created by Nimoy from his childhood memories of the way kohanim (Jewish priests) hold their hand when giving blessings.

In the clip below Leonard Nimoy explains the origin of the Vulcan hand signal.

Video by Yiddish Book Center on Publish Date February 27, 2015.

Beyond acting and directing Nimoy was a recording artist and released five albums.

The Recorded Sound Archives at FAU Libraries is delighted to share the following recordings by Alberto Mizrahi and the Western Wind, featuring Leonard Nimoy as the narrator.

The Birth of the World, Part 1: Rosh Hashanah

The Birth of the World, Part 2: Yom Kippur

Taste of Eternity – A Musical Shabbat Part 1: Friday Night Service

Taste of Enternity – A Musical Shabbat, Part 2: Saturday Morning Service

Chanukah in Story and Song