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The Sheik of Araby

"The Sheik of Araby" is a song that was written in 1921 by Harry B. Smith and Francis Wheeler, with music by Ted Snyder. It was composed in response to the popularity of the Rudolph Valentino feature film The Sheik.

"The Sheik of Araby"

1921

Jazz

Composer: Ted Snyder
Lyricist: Harry B. Smith, Francis Wheeler

"The Sheik of Araby" was a Tin Pan Alley hit, and was also adopted by early jazz bands, especially in New Orleans, making it a jazz standard. It was a well recognized part of popular culture. A verse also appears in the novel The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1926, Fleischer Studios released a cartoon with this song, recorded in Phonofilm, as part of their Song Car-Tunes series,[1] and a live action short with this title was filmed in Phonofilm in the UK, directed by Miles Mander.[2]

Origin[edit]

In 1925, composer Ted Snyder said that the song's original title was "The Rose of Araby". The Indianapolis Star reported, "A friend of Mr. Snyder's, hearing the oriental melody and recalling the popularity of the book The Sheik, held out for the masculine title, but Mr. Snyder said that a sheik meant but little or nothing in the lives of most people, whereas "The Rose of Araby" – ah, there you had romance, and everything. Then he saw the advance posters of Rudolf Valentino in the picture and gave in. So "The Sheik of Araby" came into its own – though Mr. Snyder said he whistled it around his office for some six months without anyone getting excited over it."[3]

The Huntington Press wrote, "The song hit "The Sheik of Araby" is being sung and played by millions of music lovers throughout the country. The melody has the whole town by the ears. It is being played by dance orchestras everywhere."

[4]

wrote, "That's the way it goes! They're all singing it! The whole bally town is echoing and re-echoing to the strains of that raging song hit "The Sheik of Araby" – the song of the desert chief that has the whole nation by the ears. It's being played in ten thousand homes and club houses. The pianos tinkle it – guitars and banjos are strumming it – and the phonographs are reeling it off in a flood of jazzy melody. It's hit the town like a cloudburst of harmony."[5]

The Orlando Sentinel

Recordings by and the Club Royal Orchestra charted, each peaking at #3 in 1922.[6]

Ray Miller

performed it in his revue Make It Snappy in April 1922.[7]

Eddie Cantor

Django Reinhardt et le Quintette du Hot Club de France, avec Stéphane Grappelli recorded it in April 27 1937.

recorded it in 1939[8]

Jack Teagarden

In November 1936, 's band recorded the first version with the chant "with no pants on" between the lines of lyrics.[9]

Don Albert

and Betty Grable performed the song in the 1940 film Tin Pan Alley[10]

Alice Faye

[11]

Spike Jones and his City Slickers

frequently sang it as a medley with "When You're Smiling".[12][13]

Louis Prima

recorded the song in 1961.[14]

The Everly Brothers

covered this song in 1962 at their unsuccessful Decca audition with George Harrison as the lead singer and Pete Best on the drums. The band based their arrangement on a version released by Joe Brown and The Bruvvers the year before. The Beatles' recording can be found on Anthology 1.[15]

The Beatles

The November 4, 1977 episode of guest starring Bernadette Peters features Uncle Deadly singing the song with an Anything Muppet girl.

The Muppet Show

's recording was featured in an episode of Boardwalk Empire.[16]

Leon Redbone

in June 2013 for his project Tim Timebomb and Friends[17]

Tim Armstrong

frequently sang the song during musical interludes on his radio show.[18]

Jean Shepherd

British comedian released a humorous version during his 1978 live show

Tommy Cooper

The song was featured in (1943)[19] and in Valentino (1977) with words of parody by Ken Russell, performed by Chris Ellis.[20]

Heaven Can Wait

Related song[edit]

In 1926, to go with the film The Son of the Sheik, Ted Snyder worked parts of the melody into "That Night in Araby", a related song with words by Billy Rose.[21][22][23]

List of 1920s jazz standards

"" in The Jazz Age: Popular Music in the 1920's by Arnold Shaw, Oxford University Press (1989), pg 111-119

The Sheik of Araby

by Christopher Wilkinson, University of California Press (2001)

Jazz on the Road: Don Albert's Musical Life

by Kenneth Womack, ABC-CLIO (2014)

The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four

"" in America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley by Philip Furia, Routledge (2006)

The Sheik of Araby

by Spencer Leigh, McNidder and Grace Limited (2015), pg 34-35

Best of the Beatles: The Sacking of Pete Best

at JazzStandards.com

"The Sheik of Araby"