My Yiddishe Momme

My Yiddishe Momme is a song written by Jack Yellen (words and music), and Lew Pollack (music), first recorded by Willie Howard, and was made famous by Sophie Tucker and later the Barry Sisters. Sophie Tucker began singing "My Yiddishe Momme" in 1925, after the death of her own mother. " She later dedicated her autobiography "Some Of These Days" to Yellen, "A grand song writer, and a grander friend". Sophie Tucker made `Mama' a top 5 USA hit in 1928, English on one side and Yiddish on the B-side. [Leo] Fuld combined both in one track and made it a hit in the rest of the world."

The song, in English and Yiddish, plays on stereotypes of the Jewish mother; sadder in the original Yiddish than in the English translation, the mother also implicitly symbolizes a sense of nostalgia for the "old world", as well as guilt for having left it behind in assimilating into American society.

There are several versions of the song, under different names:

• "My Yiddishe Mama": by Yiddish star Leo Fuld (in English and Yiddish)
• "On katseessa äidin": by Annikki Tähti (in Finnish)
• "The Jewish Mother (A Yiddishe Mamme)": by classical violinist Itzhak Perlman.
• "My Yiddishe Momme": pop version by Connie Francis, jazz/bossa nova piano version by the Irving Fields Trio.
• "A Yiddishe Mama (A Jewish Mama)": klezmer version by the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band.
• My Yiddishe Momme (Egy őszhajú asszony) instrumental version by hungarian quitarist Faragó "Judy" István

There was also a Spanish version made in the early 1970s called "Mi Querida Mama" (My beloved Mama), it was sung by legendary singer Nino Bravo.

Der Faier, Argentinian Yiddish & Klezmer Trio, plays a bolero-calypso version (www.sherbamate.com.ar).

Tom Jones performed a memorable live verison on his 1967 album "Live at the Talk of the Town". He also reprised this as a duet with John Farnham on the 2005 album "Together In Concert".