Hava Nagila

Hava Nagila is one of the first modern Israeli folk songs in the Hebrew language. It went on to become a staple of band performers at Jewish weddings and bar/bat(b'nei) mitzvah celebrations.

The melody is based on a Hassidic Nigun.[1] It was composed in 1918, to celebrate the Balfour Declaration and the British victory over the Ottoman in 1917. It was first performed in a mixed choir concert in Jerusalem.[2]

Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1882–1938), a professor at Hebrew University, began cataloging all known Jewish music and teaching classes in musical composition; one of his students was a promising cantorial student, Moshe Nathanson, who with the rest of his class was presented by the professor with a 19th-century, slow, melodious, chant (niggun or nigun) and assigned to add rhythm and words to fashion a modern Hebrew song. There are competing claims regarding Hava Nagila's composer, with both Idelsohn and Nathanson being suggested.[3][4]

The niggun has been attributed to the Sadigurer Chasidim, who lived in what is now Ukraine.[3] The text was probably refined by Idelsohn.[5] Members of the community began to immigrate to Jerusalem in 1915, and Idelsohn wrote in 1932 that he had been inspired by that melody.[2]

The lyrics are based on Psalm 118 (verse 24) of the Hebrew Bible. The first commercial recording of the song was produced in Berlin in 1922.[2]

• Singer Harry Belafonte is known for his version of the song, which was recorded for his album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall in 1959.[6] He rarely gave a concert without singing it, and stated that the two “stand out” songs from his professional career were “The Banana Boat Song,” and “Hava Nagila”.[3][7] Belafonte noted and claimed, "Life is not worthwhile without it. Most Jews in America learned that song from me."[8]
• Brave Combo[9]
• Glen Campbell[7]
• Chubby Checker[7]
• Carmela Corren - Israeli singer[10]
• Celia Cruz[7]
• Dick Dale and the Del Tones (surf rock)[7]
• Neil Diamond, in addition to having performed Hava Nagila in his 1994 Live In America concert,[11] incorporated it into The Jazz Singer, based on Samson Raphaelson's play, in which he acted out a cantor with popular-music ambitions.
• Dream Theater performed a cover of "Hava Nagila" in Tel Aviv, Israel on June 16, 2009.[12]
• Bob Dylan[7]
• Lena Horne, "Now!" (US #92, 1963)[7][13]
• Irving Fields[7]
• Ivan Rebroff[14]
• Four Jacks and a Jill released a version of the song on their 1965 album, Jimmy Come Lately.[15]
• Connie Francis[7]
• Abraham Zevi Idelsohn published the Hebrew song book, "Sefer Hashirim," in 1922, which includes the first publication of his arrangement of the song Hava Nagila. He also produced the first commercial recording in 1922, on the Polyphon record label ("Order No. 8533."), as part of a series which recorded 39 Hebrew folk songs.[16]
• Jon Lord of Deep Purple included Hava Nagila in his solo keyboard improvisations as heard on Made in Europe (1975).[17]
• Betty Madigan, "Dance Everyone Dance" (US #31, 1958)[13]
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes[18]
• Party Animals
• Frank Slay and his Orchestra, "Flying Circle" (US #45, 1962)[13]
• The Spotnicks[19]
• Pete Townshend, whose ability to play the song was instrumental to his induction in The Who.[20]
• The Barry Sisters
• Nissim Black, a Jewish Orthodox rapper, recorded an adaptation titled "The Hava Song".[21]

• Music of Israel
• Hora (dance)
• Zum Gali Gali

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hava Nagila.

• Hava Nagila's Long, Strange Trip at My Jewish Learning
• Hora Music, How do you sing and dance "Hava Nagila" - lyrics and steps
• Who wrote "Havah Nagilah"?
• Hava Nagila at HebrewSongs.com
• Discogs search for other remakes of "Hava Nagila"
• Historical research includes first recording of Hava Nagila
• Romani version of "Hava Nagila" (Aven, rromalen)
• Harry Belafonte sings "Hava Nagila" with Danny Kaye (1966) on YouTube