Andrews Sisters

The young Andrews Sisters from Minneapolis started their professional career in 1932 when they went on the road with a traveling vaudeville show.



About six years later, having been pushing off for years their father's advice to go back to Minneapolis to become secretaries, they had finally come to accept his wishes and planned to return home. But at that same time they got the attention of Decca records and quite dramatically things turned from a scenario of going home to lives of steno pads to a scenario of launching an internationally popular singing career.



Their years on the road performing — and practicing tirelessly — led to their big break in 1938 when a recording they made got major radio airplay and record sales. Folks called the radio stations and went to the record shops asking for that "Buy Me A Beer, Mr. Shane" song, or "My Mere Bits Of Shame" or other titles rhyming like that. Yiddish folks would understand the words that confused others.



"Bei Mir Bist Du Schön" is the song. Written entirely in Yiddish originally by Sholum Secunda, the tune was translated to English and recorded for the B-side to "Nice Work If You Can Get It," retaining the Yiddish words that roughly translate to "to me, you are beautiful."



By this time in their career, the sisters had already decided that their focus would be on making the audiences happy, versus making music that impressed other musicians. They cherished the ability to give something that moved their listeners. This is a goal they lived out their whole career.