Giora Feidman - If I Were A Rich Man (Fiddler On The Roof)

Available on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2Jgc9q432QJGLCSJo9e1hu

From '' The Dance Of Joy ''
Label: pläne ‎– 88739
Format: CD, Album
Country: Germany
Released: 1992

Tracklist
01. Ani Ole L'Yerushalim / Pilgrimage To Jerusalem
02. Rue Du Bac
03. Forget The Tears, It's Beautiful
04. If I Were A Rich Man
05. Chassidic Dance
06. Giora, For Your Neshama
07. Yankelle
08. Somebody Loves Me
09. The Dance Of Fire
10. Song For The Earth
11. Dance Of Joy
12. The Wedding Waltz
13. Shpiel Zhe Mir A Liedele
14. L'Chaim
15. Song For Two
16. The Freilach Dance
17. Rue Du Bac (Encore)

Clarinet – Giora Feidman
Castanets – Jerani Mishel, Matteo
Double Bass – Tony Falanga
Synthesizer – Manny Katz
Trombone – Art Baron
Tuba – Bob Stewart
Violin – Krista Bennion Feeney, Simon Shaheen
Drums – Anthony Lupo, David Licht
Electric Guitar – Manny Katz
Guitar – Adam Rogers, Avram Pengas, Manny Katz
Oud – Simon Shaheen
Percussion – Amir Halfon, David Licht, Laura Liben

Liner Notes – Jerry Sperling
Photography By – Bill Aron

Producer – Ora Yariv

Supervised By – Joanna Nickrenz, Marc J. Aubort

© 2009 Pianissimo Musik GmbH
℗ 2009 Pianissimo Musik GmbH

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"If I Were a Rich Man" is a popular song from the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof.
It was written by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock.
The song is performed by Tevye, the main character in the musical, and reflects his dreams of glory.

The title is inspired by a 1902 monologue by Sholem Aleichem in Yiddish, Ven ikh bin Rothschild (If I were a Rothschild), a reference to the wealth of the Rothschild family, although the content is quite different.
The lyric is based in part on passages from Sholem Aleichem’s 1899 short story "The Bubble Bursts."
Both stories appeared in English in the 1949 collection of stories Tevye's Daughters.

Cover versions and translations

The Hebrew version lyrics (first released in 1965) are taken directly from the original Sholem Aleichem story.
The title and chorus are "לו הייתי רוטשילד" Lu hayiti Rotshild: 'If I were Rothschild'.
In 1966, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass recorded an instrumental version for their album What Now My Love.
In September 1967 Bill and Boyd's version peaked at No. 24 on the Go-Set National Top 40 in Australia.
In 1967, Ronnie Hilton recorded a version.
In 1967, Roger Whittaker.
In 1967, Rolf Harris recorded a version.
In 1967, Herschel Bernardi charted with his version (Billboard "Bubbling Under The Top 100", Record World "Non-Rock" surveys).
In 1968, Sergio Franchi recorded this song in his show-stopping English/Hebrew version in a medly with "To Life/Le Chaim" on his RCA album Wine and Song.
In 1968, the song was covered in French: "Ah! Si j'étais riche," by Ivan Rebroff, and "Si j'avais des millions," with lyrics by Charles Aznavour and sung by Dalida.
In 1968, Lasse Mårtenson covered the song in Finnish: "Rikas mies jos oisin".
Big Boss and Winsome made a new French version: "Ah! Si j'étais riche", which was different from Ivan Rebroff's version.
In 1970, Romanian rock band Mondial released a cover of the song on an EP featuring singer Gică Petrescu, together with "The Impossible Dream" (previously recorded by Jack Jones in 1966) and another two covers. Only the chorus and first couplet can be heard on this recording, mainly because of the timing limitations a single disc carries.
In 1970, Turkish version Ah Bir Zengin Olsam lyrics written by "Y. Taşer" and performed by Tanju Okan.
In the 1980s Frankie Vaughan recorded his version for his album Love Hits and High Kicks.
In 1999, Lady Saw covered the song.
In 2001 the Australian punk band Yidcore recorded the song for their self-titled debut album.
Indie band The Magnetic Fields covered the song on the Fiddler on the Roof tribute album, Knitting on the Roof.

Sampling

In 1991, it was sampled on Massive Attack's song Daydreaming, from their debut album Blue Lines.
In 1994, it was covered as a ragga version by the British Louchie Lou & Michie One, as "Rich Girl".

Appearances in other media

In 1983, Matthew Smith used it as the background music in the seminal ZX Spectrum game Jet Set Willy.
In a season 4 episode of the 1980s sitcom Perfect Strangers, Balki Bartokomous, in his hopes of winning, sang part of the song after buying a lottery ticket.
An easter egg on the DVD of the 2004 film Spider-Man 2 features Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) singing the song.
Molina had played the role of Tevye on Broadway.
In the Seinfeld episode The Limo, George Costanza can be heard absent-mindedly whistling the song in a limo full of members of the Aryan Union.
The song was heard in the King of Queens episode "Hi-Def Jam".
Part of the song is also heard being hummed by some guards in the first game of the series Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
John Safran sings the song to various Palestinians including leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Liberation Organization on the third episode of his show John Safran's Race Relations.

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