Song of the Day: Bing Crosby, “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?”

Song of the Day 1 Minute

Yesterday was the 93rd anniversary of “Black Thursday,” the date when the stock markets experienced the biggest selloff of shares in history, signaling the start of the Great Depression in the United States. By 1932, unemployment reached 25% (most likely higher). “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” was written that year as a song in the musical Americana by lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Jay Gorney, who based the melody on a Russian-Jewish lullaby. Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee each recorded the song, and by the end of 1932 Al Jolson covered it as well. Here’s Bing Crosby’s cover.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

11 thoughts on “Song of the Day: Bing Crosby, “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?””

  1. Pingback: The Halloween Eve Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  4. Man, can you hear how strong his voice was on the early days. I love this song which seems apt for today. We are dealing with food prices being nuts here. My butter is $6.00, apples, which I buy 10 per week amount to $14. Toilet paper, the cheaper kind or on sale is $8.00 for 6 rolls. How is it at you end?

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    1. Prices are going up everywhere, and if the price doesn’t go up, the weight goes down.
      Stock cubes have gone up from 35p for 12 to 52p, our preferred cheese up from £3.49 to £4.99, eggs £1.60 for 6, Flora margarine 500g in excess of £2.50 now (was only £1.19), apples around 83p each depending what you buy, though packs are cheaper, if they don’t rot when you get them home, toilet paper varies, but a popular make is now £10 for 18 rolls and UHT milk was 49p a litre and is now 69p. Overall, it looks like things are not so bad for us in the UK. I’m voting with my purse though and not buying as much as everything else is going up too.

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    2. Pretty awful. We haven’t seen inflation like this in almost 50 years, the prices of gasoline, electricity and natural gas are through the roof, the supply chains are all tied up, and Washington, which caused all this, doesn’t seem to care…

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