Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

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"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", also sung as "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?", is one of the best-known American songs of the Great Depression.

Written in 1931 by lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and composer Jay Gorney, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" was part of the 1932 musical New Americana. It became best known, however, through recordings by Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee. Both versions were released right before Franklin Delano Roosevelt's election to the presidency and both became number one hits on the charts. The Warner Bros. Crosby recording became the best-selling record of its period, and came to be viewed as an anthem of the shattered dreams of the era.^{[citation needed]}

Other artists who recorded the song include:

• Spanky & Our Gang on their eponymous 1967 debut album
• George Michael for his album Songs from the Last Century
• Peter, Paul & Mary
• Ronnie Lane on his album Home Come
• Peter Yarrow in his album "Hard Times"
• Judy Collins on her 1975 album Judith
• Al Bowlly
• Al Jolson
• Tom Waits
• The Weavers
• Barbra Streisand
• Dave Brubeck included an instrumental jazz arrangement on his album "Tritonis", he also recorded "Variations On Brother, Could You Spare A Dime?" on his album "Just You, Just Me"
• Karen Lynn Gorney^[1]
• A 1993 compilation of recordings by various artists, including Tom Waits
• Mandy Patinkin for his self-titled album in 1989
• Gorney's widow, Sondra, has published a biography of him named after the song.
• The song appears in print in Norman Mailer's first novel "The Naked And The Dead" as the patrol takes a rest.
• Activist Lizzie West recorded it in Feb 2008 for her live "Tumbleweed Cabaret" album

The song was also used in the book The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer