Fanny Gordon (also known as Faiga Jofé, Fayge Yoffe or Fayge Yofe; born 1914 in Yalta; died 1991 in Leningrad) was the only female laykhtermuzik (pop music) composer in pre-war Poland.
Life and career
Gordon was born in 1914 in Yalta. After the Bolshevik Revolution her family emigrated to Poland. Faiga wrote poetry and composed songs for Warsaw cabarets and music theatres.
Her 1929 parody of the Russian romance Przy samowarze ("By the Samovar"), performed by and Tadeusz Olsza at Morskie Oko revue theatre, became an international hit, recorded by German and American dance bands. Her other hits included the tango "Skrwawione serce" ("My Bleeding Heart") sung by Polish "queen of tango" Stanislawa Nowicka, the foxtrot "Abdul Bey" based on oriental motifs, and "Siemieczki", called "The Polish Bublitshki". Her tango "Nietoperze" ("The Bats") - with lyrics about those who hunt for love at night composed by Szer-Szen (pseudonym of the prominent Polish poet, Jan Brzechwa). Her "Bal u Starego Joska" ("Party at the Old Josel's"), also known as "Bal na Gnojnej" ("Party At the Dung Lane"), lyrics by Andrzej Włast, was intended as a send-up of Warsaw apache ballads and became so famous it is now often cited as the first Warsaw underworld folksong. After the war the song was often performed by Stanisław Grzesiuk. In 1933, she wrote the operetta Jacht milosci (Yacht of Love) with a hit, the tango "Indie" (also performed in Holland and the United States under the title "New York Baby").
Before World War II Gordon lived alternately in Warsaw and the USA. She was trapped in Warsaw at the outbreak of the war but escaped to Vilna and eventually to Leningrad, where she continued to compose under the names Fieofania Markovna Kwiatkowskaja and Faina Kwiatkowski (Polish: Faina Kwiatkowska). She died in Leningrad, in 1991.
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