Abdul Abulbul Amir

"Abdul Abulbul Amir" is a folk song written in 1877 by Percy French and later set to music. It tells the story of two valiant heroes — a Russian and one of the Persian Shah's mamelukes — who because of their pride end up in a fight and kill each other.

Frank Crumit, who was famous for his renditions of it, wrote three sequels: [http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/t/thereturnofabdulabulbulamir.shtml] "The Return of Abdul Abulbul Amir", [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOWgQRmWhLc] "The Grandson Of Abdul Abulbul Amir", and "Minnie Skavinsky Skavar".

The song was adapted in 1941 into an MGM cartoon, "Abdul the Bulbul-Ameer", produced by Fred Quimby, directed by Hugh Harman [http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/3220-Abdul_The_Bulbul-Ameer.html] and featuring Groucho Marx, Lou Costello and Harry Ritz as news reporters. In this version Abdul is depicted as a bully who picks on Ivan's dwarf friend, provoking Ivan into treading on the Turk's toe. He has many traits of 1930s and 1940s cartoon villains like Bluto including thick lips, a beard and a big belly. There is a brief swordfight which soon changes into a brawl that ends with Ivan and Abdul literally "out cold". [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxOmrS6uqVM Abdul the Bulbul-Ameer] on Youtube.] The more positive portrayal of the Russians could due to the alliance between Britain and the USSR following Hitler's invasion of Russia.

In the 1980s Whitbread adapted the song using their own lyrics [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCvckXYMBEc The Whitbread advertisement] ] for a series of commercials [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyRtk92gPdU&feature=related In this version they argue over whether Whitbread should be drunk from a glass or a can] ] on British television, suggesting that the two protagonists were great fans of their beer who squabbled over trivialities. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxnnXysOrhw Another Whitbread ad] ] It starred Stephen Fry, Tim McInnerny and Roy Castle.

Lyrics

In popular culture

*In [http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0026988/ Shipmates Forever] (1935), Dick Melville (Dick Powell) is forced by upper classmen to sing 100 verses of Abdul Abulbul Amir in the shower to "get the crooner out of him and the midshipman into him".

*In Franny and Zooey (1961), Zooey find one of Seymour's diary entries, which says that Franny sang this song to him on his 21st birthday.

*In "Follow That Camel" (1967), part of the Carry On series of films, Bernard Bresslaw plays the part of Abdul Abulbul, leader of the Riffs.

*In (1987), Brent Spiner's character, the android Lore, sings the first verse of this song, as well as the first half of the third, in the episode "Brothers".

*In [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064002/ Alice's Restaurant] (1969), Ray Brock (James Broderick) is singing part of the verse describing Ivan Skavinsky Skavar as they renovate the church and as Arlo Guthrie arrives there for the first time in the movie.

See also

The plot of the song resembles that of Alexander Pushkin's much shorter poem "Delibaş" ( _ru. Делибаш) written in 1829, and inspired by the Russo–Turkish War (1828–1829).

References

External links

* [http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/25040 OldPoetry.com] lyrics and a photo of French
* [http://www.koordinatoren.com/kultur/viser/abdul.htm Koordinatoren] lyrics and a MIDI of the tune
* [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Abdul_Abulbul_Amir Memory Alpha] lyrics and Star Trek reference
* [http://www.drinkingsongs.net/html/books-and-manuscripts/1960s/1966ca-35th-tactical-fighter-wing-(PB)/index.htm Immortalia] 35th Fighter Wing (1966) Songbook -- minor variant lyrics and "pornographic" variant