– supposedly, Anthrax’s “I’m the Man” uses the same melody
I’ve looked “Hava Na Gila” up on allmusic.com, and noticed that it’s spelled many different ways, and covered on many obscure albums. This song is spoken of as if it were common knowledge; as if any random anyone could hum a few bars.
But I have no clue what the tune is. Is it a song I’ve heard many times, but never knew the name of? Is it used in any popular movies or TV shows, from where I might recognize it?
FWIW, I grew up with almost no exposure to Jewish culture.
I learned it as “Hava Nagila” back when I was in grade school and I’m not even Jewish. I doubt any of my classmates were either. Best I can tell you is that the composer and original lyrics have been lost. The modern lyrics were evidently written by Abraham Zevi Idelsohn in 1918.
An IMDb soundtrack search returned only four movies, one of which was made-for-TV. Two are Daddy Day Care and Striptease.
On this week’s episode of “It’s All Relative”, Bobby’s Irish-Catholic sister had set her cellphone to ring with “Hava Nagila” because she was trolling for Jewish guys. Apparently it’s one of the ringtones available from Nokia.
Hava Nagila is a song of celebration, and is commonly associated with the festivities after a Jewish wedding or Bar/Bat Mitvah. It is not a Chanukah song, although because it’s a (reasonably) well-known Jewish song, it’s sometimes included as the token Jewish song in Christmas concerts.
