Episode 96 - Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

So Much Stuff to Sing

Time for a new miniseries! This time, we're looking at songs originally from Broadway shows that found a greater life outside of them as anthems. Anthems of movements, times, places, industries -- Broadway has given us many anthems over the years. Arguably one of its earliest is one that everyone knows but may not know that it originated in a Broadway show: "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" by Y.E. Harburgh and Jay Gorney. The song, written for a 1932 revue called Americana appropriately enough, quickly became an anthem of the Great Depression and has maintained its status ever since. The NPR piece from 2008 mentioned on the episode The Kennedy Center resource for teachers about this song

All clips are from 2004's Broadway: The American Musical featuring Bing Crosby and are protected by the Fair Use guidelines of Section 107 of the Copyright Act for criticism and commentary. All rights reserved to the copyright owners. (N.B.: Erik adores this documentary and strongly recommends it for anyone who wants to sounds smart about Broadway history.) Buy/stream the album on Amazon!

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