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The Japanese Sandman

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"The Japanese Sandman"
Song by Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra
B-side"Whispering"
ReleasedSeptember 1920[1]
RecordedAugust 19, 1920[2]
StudioVictor Studios, Camden, New Jersey, U.S.
GenreJazz, Big band
LabelVictor 18690
Composer(s)Richard A. Whiting
Lyricist(s)Raymond B. Egan
Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra singles chronology
"The Japanese Sandman"
(1920) 		"Wang Wang Blues"
(1920)

An instrumental version of "The Japanese Sandman", being performed by Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra in August 1920.

"The Japanese Sandman" is a song from 1920, composed by Richard A. Whiting and with lyrics by Raymond B. Egan.[3][4] The song was first popularized in vaudeville by Nora Bayes, and then sold millions of copies as the B-side for Paul Whiteman's song "Whispering".[5]

Content

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"The Japanese Sandman", being performed by Nora Bayes and the Charles A. Prince Orchestra in 1920.
An instrumental rendition of "The Japanese Sandman", being performed on a synthesized piano.
1920s piano roll of "The Japanese Sandman" as played by the pianist John Milton Delcamp.
Olive Kline performing "The Japanese Sandman" in 1920, with Josef Pasternack conducting.
Red Nichols and His Five Pennies performing "The Japanese Sandman" c. 1928.
"The Japanese Sandman" being played by Frank Trumbauer & His Orchestra with Bix Beiderbeck in October 1928.
"The Japanese Sandman" played by Harry Raderman's Novelty Orchestra c. 1920.
"The Japanese Sandman" played by Isham Jones' Rainbo Orchestra in 1920.
The Japanese Sandman" played by Fred Rich's Orchestra in 1932.

The song is about a sandman from Japan, who exchanges yesterdays for tomorrows. By doing so he "takes every sorrow of the day that is through" and "he'll bring you tomorrow, just to start a life anew."[6] The number has an Oriental atmosphere, and is similar to many other songs from the interwar period that sing about a dreamy, exotic setting.

Nora Bayes made a popular recording of the song in 1920. In the same year, the song was released as the B-side of Paul Whiteman's first record, "Whispering.” It has been subsequently performed by several musical artists like Art Hickman, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke, Artie Shaw, Earl Hines, Paul Young, Django Reinhardt, the Andrews Sisters, Freddy Gardner, and in 2010, a high-fidelity recording of Whiteman's historic arrangement, by Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks Orchestra.

Additionally, the song was recorded by the Nazi German propaganda band, Charlie and his Orchestra. For propaganda reasons, the lyrics were changed through references to the Japanese Empire.

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  • The song was often used in North American cartoons in the 1940s, such as 1942's The Ducktators, usually to mock Japanese characters, due to the attack upon the U.S. by Japan.
  • An orchestral version is heard in the musical film Rose of Washington Square (1939), starring Alice Faye.[7]
  • In the 1947 Disney cartoon "Cat Nap Pluto," both Pluto and Figaro are visited by figurative "sandman" likenesses of themselves in coolie hats, seeking to bring on sleep. These references are purely visual, however, as the Whiting song is not heard.
  • The Japanese-American boxer, Shoji "Harold" Hoshino, was nicknamed "The Japanese Sandman" in the 1930s.[8][9]
  • In 1944 a version of the song plays out the submarine's speaker system to the crew in Destination Tokyo.
  • Hoagy Carmichael performed the song on ukulele in the 1952 film, Belles on Their Toes.
  • Whiteman's original can also be heard in the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and on The Masked Marauders album from the same year.
  • The song appears in the 2009 fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
  • Instrumental covers performed by Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks Orchestra appeared in almost every one of the first five episodes of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire; a version with lyrics was featured in an episode aired on October 24, 2010.
  • The Caretaker sampled the song for his track "The Weeping Dancefloor" in We'll All Go Riding on a Rainbow.

The Cellos version

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In 1957, the U.S. doowop band The Cellos recorded "Rang Tang Ding Dong (I Am The Japanese Sandman)",[10][11] which features the same character, but with different lyrics. Frank Zappa quoted from The Cellos' lyrics in his song "A Little Green Rosetta", from Joe's Garage (1979).[12]

See also

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  • "Afghanistan", contemporaneous song with a similar premise

References

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  1. ^ "Original versions of The Japanese Sandman by Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra | SecondHandSongs". Secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  2. ^ "Victor matrix B-24390. The Japanese sandman / Ambassador Orchestra ; Paul Whiteman - Discography of American Historical Recordings". Adp.library.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  3. ^ Michigan History Magazine. Vol. 85. Michigan Department of State. 2001. p. 53.
  4. ^ Irene Kahn Atkins (1 February 1983). Source music in motion pictures. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8386-3076-1.
  5. ^ Marvin E. Paymer; Don E. Post (1999). Sentimental Journey: Intimate Portraits of America's Great Popular Songs, 1920-1945. Noble House Publishers. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-881907-09-1.
  6. ^ "THE JAPANESE SANDMAN - Lyrics - International Lyrics Playground". Lyricsplayground.com. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  7. ^ "The Japanese Sandman" orchestral recording, audio file only, from Rose of Washington Square (1939) on YouTube
  8. ^ Svinth, Joseph R. (June 2002). "Boxing: Harold Hoshino, the Japanese Sandman". Journal of Combative Sport. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
  9. ^ "JCS: Harold Hoshino : Svinth".
  10. ^ "The Cellos - Rang Tang Ding Dong / You Took My Love". Discogs.com. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  11. ^ "The Cellos Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III: Notes & Comments". Donlope.net. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
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