Turkey Bound

Published on by D. G. Hart

Was it a sign? Harmonic convergence? Coincidence? Providence? While dressing for church yesterday, I was listening to the local Hillsdale radio station which has a segment of religious broadcasting before devoting several hours to big band hits. Why station managers deem Frank Sinatra and 1940s music as appropriate formats for the Lord’s Day is as mysterious as my needing background sounds on the Sabbath. (My explanation is that I am a product of Jay and Ellen Hart who always had the radio on. Their station of choice was Family Radio. I can only listen to it through streaming audio. The transistor radio in the bathroom only receives the Hillsdale station.)

Anyhow, the song that played yesterday, the day before we leave for Turkey, was “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” It is a 1953 swing-style song, with lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy and music by Nat Simon. The lyrics comically refer to the official 1930 renaming of the city of Constantinople to Istanbul. The song was originally recorded by the Canadian group The Four Lads on August 12, 1953. This recording was released by Columbia Records and reached the Billboard magazine charts on October 24, 1953, and it peaked at #10. It was the group’s first gold record. Another tidbit from Wikipedia: The Duke’s Men of Yale, an all-male a cappella group at Yale University, perform the song at the end of most of their concerts. The song has been in the repertoire of the Duke’s Men since 1953.

Here are the lyrics.

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it’s Turkish delight on a moonlit night
(Oh) every gal in Constantinople
(Oh) lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
(Oh) so if you’ve a date in Constantinople
(Oh) she’ll be waiting in Istanbul

Even old New York
Was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can’t say
People just liked it better that way

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can’t go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks’

Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo / ohhhhhhh ohh ohh ohh
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo / ohhhhhh ohh ohh ohh
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo / ohhhh ohh ohh ohh ohhh
Istanbul (Istanbul)
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo / ohhhhhhh ohh ohh ohh
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo / ohhhhhhh ohh ohh ohh
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo / ohhhh ohh ohh ohh ohhh
Istanbul (Istanbul)

Even old New York
Was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can’t say
People just liked it better that way

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks’

Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can’t go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks’

Istanbul

You can listen here.

In further preparation for travel to Istanbul (not Constinople) we watched The Edge of Heaven last night after the evening service. It is a very good movie about mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and the relationships between the Turks and Germans. Lots of Istanbul (and Bremen and Hamburg).

12 thoughts on “Turkey Bound”

  2. Funny – I have a transistor radio in my bathroom, too, AM only. 9 volt battery.

    If this had been on, you might have had to change your travel plans:

    New posts while you are gone or will Old Life revert to the Theonomy crack house it usually becomes when posts get stale? If so, do I have permission to take a vacation?

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  4. On movies (and TV) – Blair Underwood (the pilot in season one of “In Treatment”) is starring in a revival of the 1970s series “Ironside”.

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  5. “I am a product of Jay and Ellen Hart who always had the radio on. Their station of choice was Family Radio.”

    Was this Family Radio as in Harold Camping? My dad used to listen to that a lot too. Maybe we could form a recovery group. At least I’m still recovering (or trying to).

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  6. Jim, that’s the one. But they still play hymns and read lots of Scripture. There’s worse background noise while fixing the Sunday meal.

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  8. Family Radio: The hymns are hit and miss, but I really like the man’s voice who read longer passages of Scripture (15 minutes, half an hour). I actually used to listen to Harold Camping for kicks back before we had the internets when I ironed. I stopped when the majority of the calls were people accusing him of heresy and him cutting them off.

    I was just thinking last Sunday about how much nostalgia is played on the radio on Sunday mornings for non-church goers. WXRT out of Chicago plays the Beatles for two whole hours, and our local country station plays classic country (30’s-70’s)–only time I recognize it as a country station. Of course, NPR replays Saturday night’s Prairie Home Companion.

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  9. Funny, I will have to ask a family friend who ran Hillsdale’s admissons a few years back if she recalls that radio station.

    p.s. Out of curiosity I borrowed “The Lost Soul of American Protestantism” thru Michigan’s e-Library system late last fall, and I believe it came to me from Hillsdale College! Coming from evangelical circles it provoked much thought and curiosity. I can’t help thinking of that book considering all of the recent online discussions surrounding the “ordinary” vs. “radical” paradigms.

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