Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews

Subject: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: Sanjay Sircar
Date: 15 Mar 13 - 06:42 AM

In the telvmovie "Murder in the Mews" with David Suchet as Poirot, the songstress omits the standard intoduction to "Hindutan" as I know it ("Camel trappings jingle...calling from afar - in..") with a part-spoken, part-sung dialogue interaction with her band. Was this invented for this telemovie? Does anyone have the words and music?

Thanking you in anticipation,
Sanjay Sircar

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: Will Fly
Date: 15 Mar 13 - 07:13 AM

The song was written by Oliver G. Wallace and Harold Weeks in 1918. I have one or two recordings of it somewhere - mainly instrumental.

Try searching the sheet music sites for a copy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: maeve
Date: 15 Mar 13 - 07:13 AM

I see it was sung by Moya Ruskin http://ask.metafilter.com/110987/Looking-for-a-song-from-Poirot

It seems that one can hear the song by enjoying the episode on YouTube-
about 29:09: Poirot Agatha Christie - Murder In The Mews (full episode series 1) . Perhaps that will help someone.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 15 Mar 13 - 08:54 AM

The original sheet music can be seen at Levy and has the verse as Camel trappings jingle.... You can download pdfs of the sheet music from Hindustan (pdf).

The lyrics she sings in the Poirot episode may have been written for it or they may have been written earlier for someone else - many songs have had new verses written for them for particular singers.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 15 Mar 13 - 09:31 AM

As I suspected the words appeared earlier. Here's a link to Bing Crosby singing the words used in Poirot: Hindustan (starts at about 3:30). He's singing with Caterina Valente here, but it was originally Crosby with Rosemary Clooney on the Fancy Meeting You Here album. You can hear the Crosby and Clooney version on Spotify (if you do that).

I still don't know if that was the earliest appearance of those words, but I suspect they may have been written for the Clooney/Crosby partnership.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: maeve
Date: 15 Mar 13 - 09:35 AM

Very nice job, Will and Mick!

Subject: Lyr Add: HINDUSTAN (O G Wallace/H Weeks)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Mar 13 - 01:07 PM

Here's my transcription from the sheet music at the Levy site; see the link above:


HINDUSTAN
Oliver G Wallace and Harold Weeks
Chicago: Forster Music Publisher, Inc., 1918.

1. Camel trappings jingle
Harp-strings sweetly tingle,
With a sweet voice mingle,
Underneath the stars;
Singing, memories are bringing,
Temple bells are ringing, calling me afar.

CHORUS: Hindustan, where we stopped to rest our tired caravan,
Hindustan, where the painted peacock proudly spread his fan,
Hindustan, where the purple sunbird flashed across the sand,
Hindustan, where I met her and the world began.

2. Shades of night are falling,
Nightingales are calling,
Ev'ry heart enthralling,
Underneath the stars;
Sighing, like the night wind dying,
Soft my heart is crying for my love afar.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 15 Mar 13 - 02:02 PM

Since Jim's put up the sheet music version, here's the other version from Crosby/Valente, with the very slight differences in the Poirot version in parentheses.

Mick

---

HINDUSTAN
(Oliver G. Wallace, Harold Weeks)

Verse:
Here's a song, a tantalizing, ditty.
The tune is catchy and the words are witty
Could be it's a country or a city.
  Is it Tokyo?
    No, you gotta work South a little
  Is it Cocomo
    It's East, babe, move East (No you gotta work East now boys)

Here's a clue, the setting's oriental.
Has a native beat that's fundamental.
That came way before the continental.
  Is is Mexico?
    Nunca, senorita (Nunca, nunca).
  Is it Borneo?
    You're getting warmer, cos it's:

Chorus:
Hindustan, where we stopped to rest our tired caravan,
Hindustan, where the painted peacock proudly spread his fan,
Hindustan, where the purple sunbird flashed across the sand,
Hindustan, where we met and the world began (Hindustan, where I met him and the world began)


Source: Bing Crosby and Caterina Valente (after Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney), youtube as above. Bracketed variations are from the Poirot episode. The Crosby/Clooney version seems to have the responses used by in the Poirot episode, except babe instead of boys in the East line.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: Sanjay Sircar
Date: 17 Mar 13 - 12:17 AM

I am grateful, and much impressed (as always). I do not know what I can say in return which would be of any interest, but here is an attempt:

Re the chorus, which is the nub of the song, I assume US and some UK singers would automatically rhyme Hindustan with caravan-fan-san(d)-began, but it works quite as well with the more "authentic" (by some token) "Hindustaan" at the beginning of each line, which is how I sing it.

There were a whole heap of C20 "orientalist songs" like this, quite apart from Mme Woodforde-Finden, about India, including one about Bombay (which had it in the title), but there seems to be no list of them, which is a pity.

Fo those who like the kind, try the song "When Sunbeams rise", from L Mockton, "The Cingalee": I have only ever seen it on paper, never heard it on a record.

Sanjay Sircar

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: GUEST,paieye
Date: 22 Apr 13 - 04:23 PM

What is the song that Moya Ruskin sings after 'Hindustan' ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 22 Apr 13 - 05:56 PM

I think it's: Pagan Love Song (from the 1929 film, The Pagan). At 32:13 you can hear her sing the verse starting Come with me where moonbeams light Tahitian skies...

youtube has a version: Pagan Love Song, 1929 with the note that The Colombians & Ben Selvin (the youtube version) peaked at #5 in the 1929 US Charts.


Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: GUEST,Sue
Date: 06 Jun 13 - 08:29 AM

Here's a very early version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjvA43cGR7c

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: intro'Hindustan' jazz:Murder in the Mews
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 06 Jun 13 - 09:33 AM

Thanks for that Sue. That's the Campbell and Burr recording on Columbia from around the time the sheet music was issued. The video shows part of the sheet music and the lyrics are the sheet music lyrics as posted above by Jim.

The other popular recording from that time is also on youtube, the Victor recording: Hindustan - Joseph C.Smith's Orchestra. This is instrumental only and rather more sprightly than the vocal version.

Mick