Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Totally Explained

Everything about Brother Can You Spare A Dime totally explained

"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.

   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 (External Link), the composer's daughter
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

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