"Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars" finally comes to CD!

I was as happy as a little schoolgirl when I saw in the NY Times today that this CD is soon going to be released (don’t bother hitting the “listen-to” links, they’re not working yet and you get some weird-ass folkie chick). It has some of my favorite selections, though I don’t see “The Sheik of Avenue B” (His hugs and kisses snare 'em, he dun’t spare 'em, you should see his Hebrew harem) or “Since Henry Ford Apologized to Me” (I told the superintendent that the Dearborn Independent doesn’t heff to heng up vhere it used to be).

Backstory: a few years ago Ukelele Ike and I were having drinks at the Algonquin and talking about Irving Berlin. “Why does everyone sing ‘God Bless America’ and ‘White Christmas,’ but you never hear ‘Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars,’” I asked. At whick, Ike began singing “Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars,” verse, chorus and all! I was so impressed I told him, “Let’s always think of that as Our Song. Whenever I walk into a restaurant and the orchestra starts to play ‘Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars,’ I’ll think of you.”

Damned if the house band at the Stork Club didn’t swing into “Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars” just as I was tipping the hatcheck girl and signalling the barman for a Bronx Cocktail last night…and the first girl I thought of was you, Eve!

Now I first heard this splendid ditty on the Uri Caine jazz/theatre project Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley, which has been available since 1999. The audio link (“Cohen” is cut no. ten) doesn’t work for me, for some reason.

Will Reboot Stereophonic be treating us to albums of Coon Songs and Drunken Brawling Irishmen melodies in the future? We can only hope!

Eve, were you around in 1968 when IB turned 80 and Ed Sullivan devoted his entire Sunday night show to celebrating the occasion? A lot of old vaudevillians came onstage and sang early Berlin tunes, including "Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon, " “Dorando” and “Marie From Sunny Italy.” IB himself appeared and sang, if memory serves, “OH, How I hate to Get Up in the Morning,” the same song he sang in the stage and movie versions of This is the Army. I’m a rabid IB fan and that show is one of my all-time favorite memories. I’d love to find a DVD copy of it.

I just got my copy of Jewface! Soch sonks, you vouldn’t belief.

“I love my mammy
But she don’t come from Alabammy
Her heart is filled with love and real sentiment
Her cabin door is in a Bronx tenement.”