Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
(Victor 22701)
Recorded 3/2/1931 Hollywood, California.
Bing Crosby (vocalist : baritone vocal)
LeRoy Shield (director)
Leonello Casucci (composer)
Julius Brammer (lyricist)
Irving Caesar (translator)
"Just a Gigolo" is a popular song, adapted by Irving Caesar into English in 1929 from the Austrian tango "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo", composed in 1928 in Vienna by Leonello Casucci to lyrics written in 1924 by Julius Brammer.
The original version is a poetic vision of the social collapse experienced in Austria after World War I, represented by the figure of a former hussar who remembers how he once paraded in his grand uniform while he is forced to support himself as a lonely, nameless hired dancer. The music features a simple melodic sequence, but nonetheless has a clever harmonic construction that highlights the mixed emotions in the lyrics, adding a nostalgic, bittersweet effect.
The success of the song prompted publishers Chappell & Co. to buy the rights and order an English version from Irving Caesar, a very popular lyricist of the time. Caesar eliminated the specific Austrian references and, in the often-omitted verse (but included in the 1931 recording by Bing Crosby), set the action in a Paris cafe, where a local character tells his sad story. Thus, the lyrics retained their sentimental side but lost their historic context. Popular versions in 1931 were by Ted Lewis, Ben Bernie, Bing Crosby and Leo Reisman.
"Just a Gigolo" appeared in a 1931 film, a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon and a 1993 TV series, all titled after the song.
(Victor 22701)
Recorded 3/2/1931 Hollywood, California.
Bing Crosby (vocalist : baritone vocal)
LeRoy Shield (director)
Leonello Casucci (composer)
Julius Brammer (lyricist)
Irving Caesar (translator)
"Just a Gigolo" is a popular song, adapted by Irving Caesar into English in 1929 from the Austrian tango "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo", composed in 1928 in Vienna by Leonello Casucci to lyrics written in 1924 by Julius Brammer.
The original version is a poetic vision of the social collapse experienced in Austria after World War I, represented by the figure of a former hussar who remembers how he once paraded in his grand uniform while he is forced to support himself as a lonely, nameless hired dancer. The music features a simple melodic sequence, but nonetheless has a clever harmonic construction that highlights the mixed emotions in the lyrics, adding a nostalgic, bittersweet effect.
The success of the song prompted publishers Chappell & Co. to buy the rights and order an English version from Irving Caesar, a very popular lyricist of the time. Caesar eliminated the specific Austrian references and, in the often-omitted verse (but included in the 1931 recording by Bing Crosby), set the action in a Paris cafe, where a local character tells his sad story. Thus, the lyrics retained their sentimental side but lost their historic context. Popular versions in 1931 were by Ted Lewis, Ben Bernie, Bing Crosby and Leo Reisman.
"Just a Gigolo" appeared in a 1931 film, a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon and a 1993 TV series, all titled after the song.
