"Yes, My Darling Daughter" is a 1940 song by Jack Lawrence first introduced by

Dinah Shore Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during ...

Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences ...

's radio program on October 24, 1940. It was Shore's first solo record, released by

Bluebird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. ...

, and peaked at No. 10 on the ''Billboard'' magazine chart.

Тhe music

The music used by Lawrence was borrowed from a Ukrainian folk-song "Oi ne khody, Hrytsju",. The same melody had also been borrowed by

Catterino Cavos Catterino Albertovich Cavos (: Catarino Camillo Cavos; russian: Катери́но Альбе́ртович Ка́вос) (October 30, 1775 – May 10 ( OS April 28), 1840), born Catarino Camillo Cavos, was an Italian composer, organist and con ...

for his

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

''The Cossack-Poet'', although in the Cavos version it had an entirely different text: "Yes, of course, he is my lover..." ("Так, конечно, он мой милый...").

Musical structure

Israeli musicologist Yakov Soroker posited the end of the first melodic phrase of " Oi ne khody Hrytsiu" contains a "signature" melody common in Ukrainian songs in general which he calls the "Hryts sequence" and gives a list of hundreds of Ukrainian folk songs from the Carpathians to the

Kuban Kuban ( Russian and Ukrainian: Кубань; ady, Пшызэ) is a historical and geographical region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and the Caucasus, and separated ...

that contain this particular sequence. His estimation, after studying Z. Lysko's collection of 9,077 Ukrainian melodies was that 6% of Ukrainian folk songs contain the sequence.Yakov Soroker Ukrainian Elements in Classical Music, CIUS Press, Edmonton-Toronto, 1995 p. 126 Other scholars have also addressed the unique character and expressiveness of the Hryts sequence, such as

Alexander Serov Alexander Nikolayevich Serov (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Серо́в, Saint Petersburg, – Saint Petersburg, ) was a Russian composer and music critic. He is notable as one of the most important music critics in ...

, who stated that "the refrain exudes a spirit of freedom that transports the listener to the steppes and is mixed with the sorrow of some unexpected tragedy." Soroker notes the Hryts signature was used by composers

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have le ...

(String Quartet no. 20, op. 9, no. 2; String quartet no. 25, op. 17, no 1; The Saviour's Seven last Words on the Cross, the Rondo of the D major Piano Concerto omposed 1795 Andante and variations for piano 793,

Luigi Boccherini Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini (, also , ; 19 February 1743 – 28 May 1805) was an Italian composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and ''galante'' style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major Europea ...

(duet no. 2), Wolfgang A. Mozart ( Symphonia concertante K. 364), L. van Beethoven, J. N. Hummel,

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, ...

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

(Ballade d'Ukraine),

Felix Petyrek Felix Petyrek (14 May 1892 in Brno 1 December 1951 in Vienna) was an Austrian composer. He wrote stage works, songs, piano music (including duos and duets) in a Romantic style. Petyrek was a pupil of Franz Schreker and Guido Adler in Vienna. Du ...

Ivan Khandoshkin Ivan Yevstafyevich Khandoshkin (russian: Иван Евстафьевич Хандошкин, uk, Іван Остапович Хандошко) (1747 – 29 or 30 March 1804) was a Russian Empire violinist and composer of Ukrainian Cossack ...

, and others.

Notable recordings

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His conc ...

with

Helen Forrest Helen Forrest (born Helen Fogel, April 12, 1917 – July 11, 1999) was an American singer of traditional pop and swing music. She served as the "girl singer" for three of the most popular big bands of the Swing Era (Artie Shaw, Benny Goodm ...

- recorded December 20, 1940 for

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

. *

Eydie Gorme Eydie may refer to: * Eydie Gormé (1928–2013), American singer. * Steve and Eydie, an American pop vocal duet, * Eydie Whittington, a Democratic politician in Washington, D.C. * The World Of Steve & Eydie, a 1972 album released by Steve Law ...

reached the No. 10 position in the UK charts in 1962. *

Glenn Miller Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the US Army Air Forc ...

& His Orchestra (vocal by

Marion Hutton Marion Hutton (born Marion Thornburg; March 10, 1919 – January 10, 1987) was an American singer and actress. She is best remembered for her singing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1938 to 1942. She was the sister of actress and singer ...

). This reached No. 9 on the ''Billboard'' charts.

References

1940 songs Songs with lyrics by Jack Lawrence Benny Goodman songs Ukrainian folk songs Bluebird Records singles Dinah Shore songs {{1940s-song-stub