Songs Written by Percy French - Abdul Abulbul Amir, Slattery's Mounted Foot, the Mountains of Mourne, Are Ye Right There Michael (Paperback)

Commentary (music and lyrics not included). Chapters: Abdul Abulbul Amir, Slattery's Mounted Foot, the Mountains of Mourne, Are Ye Right There Michael. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 30. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: "Abdul Abulbul Amir" is a poem written in 1877 by Percy French and later set to music. It tells the story of two valiant heroes a Russian, Ivan Skavinsky Skavar, and one of the Shah's mamelukes, Abdul Abulbul Amir 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: "The Return of Abdul Abulbul Amir," "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 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." The more positive portrayal of the Russians could be 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 for a series of commercials on British television, suggesting that the two protagonists were great fans of their beer who squabbled over trivialities. It starred Stephen Fry as Ivan, Tony Cosmo as Abdul, Tim McInnerny and Roy Castle. Ivan, Dwarf and Abdul according to the MGM cartoon "Mr Ameer Put up your hands and fight " The plot of the song resembles that of Alexander Pushki...http: //booksllc.net/?id=322466