The Sheik of Araby

[Eli M.]

Does anyone know anything about the song "The Sheik of Araby?" I don't own any recordings of it but I know it because my father used to sing it (I know the Beatles did it in their early days).

The song goes:
"Well I'm the sheik of Araby
Your love belongs to me
Well, at night when you're alseep
Into your tent I'll creep" etc.

My father used to sing a joke version where you sing "without no clothes on" after every line:

"Well I'm the sheik of Araby (without no clothes on)
Your love belongs to me (without no clothes on)
Well, at night when you're asleep (without no clothes on)
Into your tent I'll creep (without no clothes on)" etc.

I did a search on Google for "without no clothes on" and found nothing, so maybe it was something one of my father's friends made up back in the day. Has anyone else heard of this?

[Tritone]

It's a legit song. The only version I know of was done by the Firehouse 5 + 2 dixieland group. Cool song!

[bassteban]

-in some old(30s/40s)musical. Couldn't guess who played/sang it, though it seemed it was a big name along the lines of Bing Crosby.

Edit: I doubt you'll find anything if you search under wording other than 'The sheik of Araby'. It's very unlikely that someone copyrighted a parody version.

[Eli M.]

Originally Posted by bassteban

-in some old(30s/40s)musical. Couldn't guess who played/sang it, though it seemed it was a big name along the lines of Bing Crosby.

Edit: I doubt you'll find anything if you search under wording other than 'The sheik of Araby'. It's very unlikely that someone copyrighted a parody version.

I found out that Spike Jones & His City Slickers sang the song - I found their lyrics and there are a couple of verses I never heard of before.

And the fact that I found no references to the joke version at all seems to show that it was probably just something somebody made up.

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Leon Redbone also does that song.

I've played it in acoustic jams with friends many times.

Like Eli's dad, some people add joke lines in between the original lines of a song. Another one that I've heard people add (to a different song) was "between the sheets."

[Kelly Coyle]

The earliest version I have heard is from Fats Waller -- extremely cool. He was just out there harmonically and rhythmically, even before you consider how long ago that was. (OK, I Googled. It was written in 1921; Waller made his recording in 1938.)

[Thornton Davis]

That song was written in 1922 during the vaudeville era, by Irving Berlin's sidekick Ted Snyder.

You can find The Beatles version of it (very tonge and cheek) on The Anthology 1 CD. They recorded their version in January 1962. George sings the lead vocal with Lennon and McCartney singing the harmonies.

Pretty crappy song, but I can see them performing it during their Hamburg days as their version was up tempo.

TD

[bmc]

Curious to know it they pronounced it as Sheek or shake (correct pronounciation)

[Bard2dbone]

The last time I heard this song performed in public was by Slim Richey and his Dream Band, at the All Good Cafe in Dallas in September of 2003. The restaurant next door drew an amazing number of transvestites and transexuals as customers. We were at All Good because it was my sons 18th birthday and Slim is a cousin of my wife. So when we asked Mike what we wanted to do for dinner he said "Let's go see Slim."

We would step outside for un-smokified air and Mike kept getting flirted at. I found out later that his half sister, who was with us was instigating the TV's/TS's to flirt with him. But once they started, they kept it up. At eighteen years old he could still blush.

Oh. And Slim pronounced it 'Sheek' and mentioned that you could picture the words "with no pants on" if you needed a chuckle.