Morris Rund. Collection of 15 Yiddish Penny Songs - “Nikl-Lider.”

These nikl-lidr represent popular music-hall songs of the Lower East Side, composed and written by Morris Rund (1880-1938). Some of the titles are: “Oy, Der Purim,” “Lo Lanu,” “In Fremden Land” and “Mein Lansmen Chayim Ber,” to the tune of “More Work For the Undertaker.” These so-called penny songs were actually sold for 5¢. Each one was copyrighted by Rund (“in Washington” he proudly announces), and were huge hits among the Yiddish-speaking tenement-dwelling masses. Jane Peppler writes that the songs are “‘melodramatic… composed with cheesy predictable rhymes” and sung “to the tunes of more famous Yiddsh songs or… American popular tunes of the day… these days are sung by barbershop quartets if they're heard at all.” And yet they were important diversions and entertainment in the life of those who eagerly bought and sang them. See Jane Peppler, American Yiddish Penny Songs by Morris Rund and Others: The Hebrew Union College Collection of Yiddish Broadsides, 1895-1925.