AllMusic lists 306 recordings of "Dark Eyes" though some of these may be other songs with the same title.  Older versions are by Henry Allen, Tommy Dorsey, Ted Heath, Art Tatum and Jack Teagarden.  There are also a large number of recordings from the 50s, possibly a result of that era's nostalgia revival.  The actual dates aren't always completely clear because AllMusic can be a bit iffy on solid discographic info once you're in the 20s-50s.  To find out if the song was an actual hit check the Joel Whitburn books (should be in reference section of any large library).  The Whitburn books have their own limitations for the 30s but nothing else is remotely as reliable.

The larger interesting question is why some pieces of music become signifiers for an entire style or even culture?  For example "Temptation" is the standard tango or "Hava Nagila" for Judaism or possibly Middle Eastern culture.  


Lang Thompson



-----Original Message-----
>From: "Larsson, Donald F" <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Feb 24, 2007 9:55 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: [SCREEN-L] Question about song in 1930s films
>
>This may seem like a strange question, but I wonder if anyone knows why the Russian (actually Ukrainian) song "Ochi Chernye" ("Dark Eyes") turns up in a number of American films in the 1930s, usually in a comical way.  It's "practiced " endlessly by Mischa Auer in MY MAN GODFREY, used as a ruse by Fred Astaire in SHALL WE DANCE, and rather alarmingly trilled by Gloria Jean in NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK.  It's clear that the song was well-known enough to function as a signifier for "Russian-ness" but was its use prompted by a particular recording or musician in the 1930s?  
> 
>Don Larsson
> 
>-----------------------------------------------
>"Nothing is ever the same as they said it was.  It's what I've never seen before that I recognize."  --Diane Arbus
>
> 
>Donald F. Larsson
>Department of English, AH 230
>Minnesota State University
>Mankato, MN  56001
>[log in to unmask] 
>Office Phone: 507-389-2368
> 
>
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