Monday, May 10, 2010

Artie Shaw: Marinella

One of my uncle's favorite songs (at least of the non-Greek variety) was a little known Artie Shaw number called Marinella. My father and uncle were childhood friends as well as sons of immigrants from Janina, Greece. They belonged to a social club on East Broadway in December 1941. I think it might have been named the Allbros (short for Allen and Broome Street, the vicinity from where many of the Greek Jews lived. Marinella was near the top of the charts on December 7th. When news of Pearl Harbor reached home the club members knew things would change and that they would all eventually be drafted. They played Marinella, with it's strange haunting melody, over and over that day. Here's Marinella

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