Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
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"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" is a swing-style song, written by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon. It is based on the music for "Puttin' on the Ritz", written by Irving Berlin in 1929.[verification needed]
It was originally performed by The Four Lads in a recording made on August 12, 1953. This recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 40082. It first reached the Billboard magazine charts on October 24, 1953, and it peaked at #10.
The lyrics humorously remind the listener of the change of the name of the city Constantinople to the Turkish name of Istanbul, professing uncertainty about how and why the names of cities change.
It is reputed that one of the humor pieces found in the 1920s Fawcett Publications' humor magazine Captain Billy's Whizbang, titled "Al-Bar the Bubul Emir", was the inspiration for this Tin Pan Alley song. [verification needed]
The lyrics were used in the February 21, 1954 episode of The Jack Benny Program during a sketch about a guy trying to buy a train ticket to Constantinople. Jack Benny and Frank Nelson proceed to use the lyrics to dispute where the guy can go.
[edit] Covers
The best-known version of the song is the cover by the rock group They Might Be Giants, who released it on their LP Flood in 1990, and on its own EP that same year. TMBG's version is at a faster tempo than the original and contains a distinct klezmer influence, including a violin introduction and some accordion parts.
The song was previously covered, in a much more unique interpretation at lower tempo, by the The Residents on their classic 1978 EP Duck Stab.
The Duke's Men of Yale, an all-male a cappella group at Yale University, perform the song at the end of most of their concerts. The song has been in the repertoire of the Duke's Men for fifty-three years.
The song is on the album "Bette Midler Live at Last."
The song is also covered as the opening track on the Ska Cubano Album "Ay Caramba".
Other artists that are known to have covered this song include Edmundo Ros (1953) , The Radio Revellers (1953) , Frankie Vaughan (1954), Caterina Valente (1954), Santo & Johnny (1962).
[edit] Cultural uses
The They Might Be Giants version of the song was used for a music video in an episode of the animated children's series Tiny Toon Adventures.[citation needed]
An episode of The Simpsons in which Homer buys an RV with Marge's "scrimpings", features the TMBG version of the song when the family is invited on the deck of a Turkish Freighter upon which the RV landed.
The song was also featured in the 2003 film Mona Lisa Smile, and the Pierce Brosnan episode of Muppets Tonight.
In 2005, the TMBG version of the song was featured in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX 3, for Microsoft's Xbox console.
Categories: Cleanup from February 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | Wikipedia articles needing factual verification | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | 1953 songs | 1990 singles | Songs by Jimmy Kennedy | Songs by Nat Simon | They Might Be Giants songs
