Dark Eyes (Russian song)

"Dark Eyes" (Russian: Очи чёрные, romanized: Ochi chyornye, lit.

The Russian singer Feodor Chaliapin popularized a version of "Dark Eyes" with changes to the lyrics and additional verses.

[1] Another popular version was written by the Italian-born British composer Adalgiso Ferraris, and first published in 1910 as "Schwarze Augen" ("Black Eyes").

[9] The lyrics were written by the poet and writer Yevhen Hrebinka, born in Poltava, now in Ukraine.

21 for piano, written by Florian Hermann, a composer of German-Polish origin active in the Russian Empire.

[17][18] Another popular version of "Dark Eyes" was written by Adalgiso Ferraris, who had spent many years in Russia before 1915, and was published while he was still in Russia in 1910, in collaboration with the German editor Otto Kuhl, as "Schwarze Augen" ("Black Eyes").

[2][3] Ferraris then published it again in 1931, in affiliation with Paris Editions Salabert and with Jacques Liber, as "Tes yeux noirs (impression russe)"[19] on 9 October 1931.

[22][better source needed] According to Garay, the melody of "Ojos negros que fascinan", a bolero, was composed by him upon request, for a Russian choir-girl with beautiful and expressive eyes, when an Opera company from Russia came to visit Cuba in the 1890s.

Garay stated that “the melody of "Ojos negros" ("Dark Eyes") went back to Russia with the musicians and it was not until many years later that he found out through a friend that the song was part of the soundtrack of a Russian film playing at the local theatre.

But I am not sad, I am not sorrowful, My fate is soothing to me: All that is best in life that God gave us, In sacrifice I returned to the fiery eyes!

Ochi chyornye, ochi zhguchie Ochi strastnye i prekrasnye Kak lyublyu ya vas, kak boyus' ya vas Znat' uvidel vas ya ne v dobryi chas A part of the song is featured in the 1936 screwball comedy film My Man Godfrey, in which the protegé Carlo (played by Mischa Auer) accompanies himself on the piano, crooning the beginning of the song several times in a schmaltzy manner.

The song is also featured in the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner, in which employees of a store (played by James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan and Frank Morgan) argue over whether to sell a cigarette box that plays the song when opened.

The 1947 film It Happened in Brooklyn features a scene wherein Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Durante sing the song as a warm-up for Sinatra's character, who hopes to get a job as a song plugger at a music store.

In David Cronenberg's 2007neo-noir gangster movie Eastern Promises the song is performed on an accordion in the main antagonist's Russian restaurant during a family gathering.