Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Joe Offer Date: 18 Oct 22 - 11:18 PM Now you've got it, Leeneia - Hoffman and Manning were having fun, and they wrote the song in Yinglish, a delightful mix of English, Yiddish, and occasional German. They had a good time writing this cute song, and it shouldn't be taken too seriously. If want to explore this, take a look at Leo Rosten's wonderful book, The Joys of Yiddish. The book is an absolute classic, and it is so much fun to read. -Joe- |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: leeneia Date: 18 Oct 22 - 05:10 PM Maybe the authors were Russian Jewish, but they wanted to write a hit, and a funny song based on German words is a lot more familiar and saleable in America than something Russian or Yiddish. Have you ever heard the song from the parody-musical "Little Mary Sunshine" that starts: In Eisenschnucken on the lovely Essenzook See I often seem to often dream how fine it would be. The Himmelblunkin mountains all covered mit schnow, The Wasserfunken River far below... It's got a good melody, and it's fun to sing. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 16 Oct 22 - 05:35 AM It goes without saying that Freud being about subconscious childhood traumas, the lyrics themselves have been bapt- and Americanized. Sill, the trauma has not been solved, just painted over, and the daughter of the couple may suffer from it once more, with ministers replacing the rabbis. Sad song, isn't it? |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 16 Oct 22 - 05:25 AM The message of the Elvis song, more or less autobiographical, seems to be that a GI is offered a more comfortable life in Germany than at home (– the singer himself was rich and famous already, and employed his own hairdresser –), but this does not compensate for homesickness. Thus, he imagines a hasenpfeffer of high quality, like the view on the Rhine. A kosher dish Ochsenpfeffer is certainly possible, but in Yiddish, an ox is an oks with a strong k. Yiddish has a strong h as well, but it can get lost more easily. Under all those unproven hypotheses, the title means "Gilead, Gilead, A-meat-dish, A-name-of-famous-rabbis". We still need a Sigmund (Shlomo) Freud to make sense of it. My daring attempt: "A small shtetl, not poor (can afford meat), but dominated by orthodox rabbis, so that girls dream of getting married away from it". |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Joe Offer Date: 16 Oct 22 - 12:05 AM I was on a Nixon-frozen military salary when I was stationed in Berlin as a German linguist in 1972-72, so we didn't eat out very often. But I did try to sample the local dishes wherever I went, and I ordered Hasenpfeffer once because I had heard of it so often in school in Milwaukee. It was...so-so. I never ordered it again. Why bother with bunny stew, when you're in a place that serves Rouladen and Sauerbraten and Schnitzel? I had never heard of Oxenpfeffer before I started researching this song again this week. But it would seem that ox meat would be common and cheap in Eastern Europe. And it's kosher. So, why not Oxenpfeffer, cooked more-or-less like Hasenpfeffer? But I concede that I originally thought "Ossenpfeffer" was a twisted pronunciation of "Hasenpfeffer." |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: GUEST,threelegsoman Date: 15 Oct 22 - 01:44 PM I uploaded this song nine years ago: Includes lyrics and chords |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 15 Oct 22 - 05:45 AM Snuffy, indeed "GI Blues" of 1960 contains the lines: They give us a roomThe male background singers repeat "hasenpfeffer, hasenpfeffer". This song is obviously set in Germany, where the singer is simply homesick, not disgusted. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 15 Oct 22 - 05:21 AM Thank you, Joe, for mentioning the names and linking the Wikipedia articles. There we read clearly that both authors emigrated from the Russian Empire (now Belarus) directly to the USA (whereas many other Yiddish speakers stopped over in Germany or Austria between the respective revolutions). The German lyrics are attributed to Heino Gaze, himself a composer of light music, but quite "Aryan", born in Halle, close enough to formerly Plattdeutsch-speaking areas to mistake "Ossen" for oxen, definitely un-Yiddish. The Hasenpfeffer theory seems possible to me, that is all I said. (Google-translate, though, translates Hasenpfeffer as קיניגל פעפער – "Kinigl fefer", the first word corresponding to German "Kaninchen" = rabbit. But then, Yiddish has its dialects and variants, and Google its idiosyncrasies.) Like many songs by Manning, Gaze, and similar authors of that time, the lyrics can be seen as tongue-in-cheek or even "nonsense poetry", but its success and its declaration as a children's song indicate that many listeners took its tendency for face value. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Snuffy Date: 15 Oct 22 - 05:10 AM I think that in the title song of "GI Blues" Elvis sings hossenfeffer, but its a l-o-n-g time since I heard it. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Oct 22 - 06:40 PM Grishka and leeneia, I think you're both speculating. Please be careful to separate documentable facts from your own speculation - but I admit it is fascinating to study the Jewish US songwriters of the period just after World War II. Composer Al Hoffman and lyricist Dick Manning ruled the easy-listening dial on my dad's radio, and a lot of their songs were the first songs I learned. I sang "Hot Diggity" over and over again, and dreamed I would grow up to be Perry Como. I swooned over Dinah Shore's recording of "Fascination," a French song with English lyrics by Manning. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Snuffy Date: 14 Oct 22 - 05:59 PM My dad used to delight in mangling song choruses: he used to sing "in Gilbert Harding's salt and pepper, cats are always walking by the sea" |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 14 Oct 22 - 03:48 PM Leeneia, please note that the authors were born in Russia, of Yiddish mother tongue and Jewish "race" (by Nazi terminology), and apparently never saw Germany or spoke German. Some Americans may nevertheless have associated Germany. As you know better than I, there were always many who had some romantic image of Germany in their hearts, regardless of their own ethnic backgrounds. We can see this again in the current Oktoberfest thread. (Actually hatred between the ethnicities of wartime opponents is rarely total, certainly not between Ukrainians and Russians.) I like your idea of Hasenpfeffer, it makes more sense linguistically and culinarily than Ochsenpfeffer. Google even reveals a (partly) Yiddish ditty featuring the word – not a proof though. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: leeneia Date: 14 Oct 22 - 01:18 PM At the latest Mudcat singaround, a participant said she had an ancestor named Katzenellenbogen, so the name apparently got around in the olden days. I wonder if the word refers to a particularly sharp bend in a stream course. I've always thought the humor of the song came from Americans imitating the gentle rattling of German multisyllabic words, although "Gilly gilly" doesn't seem German at all. There's a y in the German alphabet, but the letter is hardly ever used. "Ossenpfeffer" surely comes from "Hasenpfeffer," (rabbit-pepper), a fairly well-known dish. I like it that the song became a hit a mere nine years after Germans and Americans were fighting to the death is WW II. Perhaps it's a factor that there are a lot of Americans with German ancestry. (I just read somewhere that the most common type of surname is German.) I wish I had some young kids around so we could sing it. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 14 Oct 22 - 06:45 AM The song is obviously not up to today's ideas of child education. The tune certainly has a "hook", but most of the arrangements mentioned above are even more corny than the lyrics. "Bossa nova" – haha! What intrigues me though is the title/chorus. Katzenelnbogen is a village in SW Germany of then 1500 inhabitants, hardly known in the USA. But in the Middle Ages it was the home and eponym of influential counts and, to the point here, famous rabbis. Wikipedia tells us that the authors Al Hoffman and Dick Manning were of Yiddish mother tongue (born in the tsar's empire), thus are likely to have remembered the rabbis' name rather than the village's – though the latter would seem most adequate to the "message" of the song. Therefore, Ossenfeffer ought to be Yiddish as well. "Feffer" is easily identified as pepper, but to read "Ossen" as oxen/Ochsen may well be a mistaken projection from the Dutch and Low German word. Anyway, ossenfeffer seems to be a dish of the Yiddish cuisine. Gilly is a short form for the name Gilead, popular with Jews worldwide. To sum up, the story may originally be set not in wirtschaftswunder Germany, but in a Russian shtetl, mostly imaginary. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Steve Shaw Date: 13 Oct 22 - 07:44 AM I always thought it was 'orse 'n' pepper... |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Dave the Gnome Date: 13 Oct 22 - 05:12 AM Or, as I used to sing as a kid "Gilly gilly salt and pepper chattanooga choo choo by the the sea" :-D |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Senoufou Date: 13 Oct 22 - 03:41 AM Oh I used to love Max Bygraves singing this song on the radio! Takes me back too Steve. I think it was often played on 'Uncle Mac's Children's Favourites'. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Oct 22 - 03:19 AM So, the German would be Gilli-Gilli Oxenpfeffer, Katzenellenbogen in Tirol - although I would spell that "Ochsenpfeffer" because I don't buy into this Neuschreibung stuff. This 1964 German bossa nova version by Bibi Johns is playable in the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctd-2WwDDv0 And Good Old Bibi also has a "serious" version without the Bossa Nova: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nNvfrICm4w And Bibi, by the way, was born in Sweden in 1929 and is still kickin'. As far as I can tell, she is the sole source of the German version of the song. Wikipedia says both the English and German versions were released in 1954, but it appears the Four Lads version was recorded in February, the Max Bygraves version in June, and the Bibi Johns version in September. I'll betcha I first heard the Four Lads version soon after it was released in 1954. If my dad were still alive, he would know exactly. Isn't this fun? |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 11 Oct 22 - 07:59 AM In the German original, the place is in Tyrol – about as far from the real Katzenelnbogen as the sea. Dreams from the '50s. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Steve Shaw Date: 11 Oct 22 - 07:13 AM I thought that too. Listening back to it, it could be "Sam" or "son." But I think it's "son." Far more like Max than Sam! |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Snuffy Date: 11 Oct 22 - 06:42 AM "That's a good idea, SON!" was Max Bygrave's catchphrase, with the audience joining in on "SON!"
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Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen ... From: Steve Shaw Date: 10 Oct 22 - 09:01 PM Cheers, Joe. That takes me back, it does. |
Subject: ADD: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen From: Joe Offer Date: 10 Oct 22 - 02:50 PM Here's the lyrics from the Max Bygraves recording: GILLY GILLY OSSENFEFFER KATZENELLEN BOGEN BY THE SEA Words and music by Al Hoffman & Dick Manning, 1954. As recorded by Max Bygraves in 1954 1. There's a tiny house (there's a tiny house) By a tiny stream (by a tiny stream) Where a lovely lass (where a lovely lass) Had a lovely dream (had a lovely dream) And her dream came true (and her dream came true) quite unexpectedly In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea. 2. She was out one day (she was out one day) Where the tulips grow (where the tulips grow) When a handsome lad (when a handsome lad) Stopped to say hello (stopped to say hello) And before she knew (and before she knew), he kissed her tenderly In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea The happy pair were married one Sunday afternoon. They left the church and ran away to spend their honeymoon 3. In a tiny house (in a tiny house) By a tiny stream (by a tiny stream) Where the lovely lass (where the lovely lass) Had a lovely dream (had a lovely dream) And the last I heard (and the last I heard) they still live happily In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea, In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea. So now you've heard the story Of how it all began Child: I think I'd like to go there That's a good idea, Son. Sing very soft (sing very soft) Pianissimo (pianissimo) Like a little bird (like a little bird) Walking in the snow (walking in the show) That was very nice (that was very nice) Now, sing it merrily: It's Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea, In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea. In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9SChjqE07Q |
Subject: RE: Chords: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen From: GUEST,Jacqued Date: 14 Oct 06 - 03:59 PM Many thanks, never been let down yet by 'catters! Ed |
Subject: Chords Add: GILLY GILLY OSSENFEFFER KATZENELLEN... From: M.Ted Date: 13 Oct 06 - 07:08 PM Al Hoffman, who was a co-writer of this song, also co-wrote "Bibbity Bobbity Boo", "Mairzy Doats", "Chi Baba, Chi Baba", "Hot Diggety Dog", and "If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd Have Baked A Cake". Anyone see a pattern? Here are the chords, in C--4/4, each chord letter gets two counts--they are not lifted and reposted from somewhere else,they are mine, and they worked-- Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By-the-Sea Chords (Verse) (Pick-up)G7| C C/ G7 G7/G7 G7 /C C7/ F F#°/C A7/Dm7 G7/C G7/ C C/ G7 G7/G7 G7 /C C7/ F F#°/C A7/Dm7 G7/C C/ (Bridge) F F#°/C A7/Dm7 G7/C C7/ F F#°/C A7/Dm7 Dm7/G G7/ C C/ G7 G7/G7 G7 /C C7/ F F#°/C A7/Dm7 G7/C C| |
Subject: RE: Chords: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen From: Bill D Date: 13 Oct 06 - 02:05 PM by the Sea...by the beautiful sea. (at least I 'think' I remember that ending.) |
Subject: ADD: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Oct 06 - 01:01 PM Gee, I thought this was a camp song like "Hagalena Magalena Woopensteiner Walkenheimer Mooga Mooga Mooga Was Her Name." Nope - looks like it was a popular song composed in the 1950's and recorded by The Four Lads, Max Bygraves, and others. It has been mentioned here before, but I didn't find lyrics posted at Mudcat. This page (click) has lyrics. The song even has a Wikipedia entry. GILLY GILLY OSSENFEFFER KATZENELLEN BOGEN BY THE SEA Words and music by Al Hoffman & Dick Manning, 1954. As recorded by The Four Lads, 1954. 1. There's a tiny house (there's a tiny house) By a tiny stream (by a tiny stream) Where a lovely lass (where a lovely lass) had a lovely dream (had a lovely dream) And the dream came true (and the dream came true) quite unexpectedly In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea. 2. She was out one day (she was out one day) Where the tulips grow (where the tulips grow) When a handsome lad (when a handsome lad) Stopped to say hello (stopped to say hello) And before she knew (and before she knew), he kissed her tenderly In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea The happy pair were married one Sunday afternoon. They left the church and ran away to spend their honeymoon 3. In a tiny house (in a tiny house) By a tiny stream (by a tiny stream) Where the lovely lass (where the lovely lass) Had a lovely dream (had a lovely dream) And the last I heard (and the last I heard) they still live happily In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea, In Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea. Four Lads Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGFlNMsDs8M |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenboge From: Cool Beans Date: 13 Oct 06 - 12:54 PM So how does the last verse go? I don't have my guitar with me, but it sounds like a basic three-chorder: C,F, and G7 or G, C and D7. and so on I'll go home and play it and post the chords tomorrow (gotta work tonight)unless somebody beats me to it. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen From: Sorcha Date: 13 Oct 06 - 12:47 PM Oh, I found the song...just not the chords. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen From: Cool Beans Date: 13 Oct 06 - 12:46 PM Here's what I remember..and don't quote my spelling... There's a tiny house (There's a tiny house) By a tiny stream (By a tiny stream) Where a lovely lass (repeat) Had a lovely dream (repeat) And the dream came true Quite Unexpectedly In Gilly Gilly Hassenpfeffer CatchenAllenBogan by the Sea -- She was out one day (She was out one day) Where the tulips grow (Repeat) When a handsome lad (repeat) Stopped to say hello (repeat) And before she knew He kissed her tenderly In Gilly Gilly Hassenpfeffer CatchenAllenBogan by the Sea That's all I've got, Jacqued, dregded up from memory more than 50 years ago. I assume there's a last verse. |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenboge From: Wolfgang Date: 13 Oct 06 - 12:10 PM Try the spelling Gilli-Gilli, Oxenpfeffer, Katzenellenbogen. Wolfgang |
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen From: Sorcha Date: 13 Oct 06 - 11:58 AM No luck. Sorry. |
Subject: Chord Req: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen From: GUEST,Jacqued Date: 13 Oct 06 - 10:46 AM - By The Sea! Trying to get grandbrat(macy aged 6) interested in a guitar, and this may do the trick as she knows the tune already! Help! |
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