http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/FdG9P1MsU5A&hl=en&fs=1
“Hava Nagila” is one of my favorite songs of all time. It is cute yet dark, with its sinuous Phrygian Dominant tonality. I won’t get into the history of the song, as a Google search will take care of that. I will, however, direct you to the first ever recording of “Hava Nagila,” from 1922. Note how slow it is, in comparison to the breakneck speeds I experienced at a (half) Jewish wedding – see here.
The song has been covered a thousand ways ’til Saturday, in a thousand different styles. Even Elvis took it on (badly). The metal versions of “Hava Nagila” I’ve heard are all charmingly bad. See, for example, this Polish nu-metal version. Sonata Arctica slipped it into the end of their For the Sake of Revenge live album. The quote isn’t long enough to warrant sharing, plus you should avoid Sonata Arctica anyway, so just take my word for it.
Anthrax – I’m the Man ‘91Little Dead Bertha – Hava NagilaBoney Nem – Heavy Nagila
Two Three metal versions are worth sharing, though. The first is “I’m the Man ‘91,” from Anthrax’s Attack of the Killer B’s. It isn’t a cover per se; it uses the “Hava Nagila” riff in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the band’s Jewish members. It is also the worst thing Anthrax has ever done (which is saying a lot). Almost as bad is a cover by Russian goth/prog metal band Little Dead Bertha. It actually starts out kind of cool, like a Spaghetti Western. But then it goes into big, dumb power chords, like a Great Kat song minus the shredding. Last is a crazy thrash send-up by Russian parody metallers Boney Nem. It reminds me of Korpiklaani on steroids. Thanks to reader Petya for the tip!
The best cover ever of “Hava Nagila” is in Hindi, set to insane Bollywood-style dance routines. See above. I have lost count of how many times I have watched this slice of heaven.
In my opinion, the best cover of this song is by a "parody-metal" band called ???? ??? and it is renamed "Heavy Nagila"; they parody both the original and the polish version with some additional charming blastbeats, and a breakdown in the end. I sent it to you. The name of the band is a parody on the name of an 80's disco group Boney M, which translates to "Boney is Deaf" – they are known for doing covers of Soviet, American, German, Italian, and French retro songs, along with modern pop music & metal songs.
Is that Kenny Loggins in that video???
There’s another metal version of Hva Nagila here – http://www.myspace.com/makkabees
Thanks for the info, Petya and Keith. I’ve added the Boney Nem clip to the post.
Such cool info on the Hava Nagila! Awesome post.
Etan sent me here – great collection of H.N. covers.
Fun to hear the mix of Hare Krishna and Hallelluyah (and maybe a snippet of Russian Orthodox choral music) in the Boney nem clip.
FYI according to my sources, the melody is Chassidic; the words were written by Moshe Nathanson, and Idelsohn probably collected the tune.
Etan's mom (the cantor…)
Hi, Jewish Wedding Network and Etan's mom! It's good to see there's more than just heathens in this house
Strange, I had just read about this on Wikipedia:
http://whiplash.net/materias/news_874/091017-dreamtheater.html
Very cool, Florian, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for writing on it are there feeds to your blog? I’d like to save them