USKUTARI GIDER IKDI
Created on 15/06/2003Latest update on 05/11/2023
Artist: Avedis
Author: traditional
Year: 1900
Better known as Üsküdara Gider Iken (On The Way To Üsküdar), the name of the Asian part of Istanbul. As such crediting Muzaffer Serysözen/Nuri Halil Poynaz. Avedis was a 12 year old boy from Armenia, recorded by etno musicologist Felix von Luschau in Zencirli (south east Turkey).
Covers:
- 1910s:
Radoslav Stojadinovic [as Poletela Dva Bijela Goluba on the Favorite label (cut in Linden, GER)]
- 1916:
Joseph Moskowitz [Klezmer version in Medley Of Turkish Melodies]
- 1924:
Naftule Brandwein [as Der Terk In America]
- 1949:
Safiye Ayla [as Katibim Türküsü; Kitt's example (and look-alike)]
- 1954:
Eartha Kitt [as Usku Dara (A Turkish Tale)]
- 1955:
Tobi Rix en zijn Toeteriks [as Uska Dara (Het Stille Stadje)]
- 1963:
- 1964:
- 1967:
Herbie Mann [as Uskudar]
- 1967:
Jasperina de Jong [in medley Sinternationale]
- 1968:
Zeki Müren [in Turkish film Kâtip (Üsküdara giderken]
- 1978:
Boney M [melody line halfway through Rasputin; n°2 UK]
- 1996:
- 1997:
- 1998:
Burning Bush [as Terk In America]
- 2001:
- 2006:
Loreena McKennitt [as Sacred Shabbat]
- 2007:
Tose & Synthesis [Tose Proeski (the Balkan Elvis) as Oj Devojce]
- 2013:
Pink Martini [as Uskudar]
The Greek call it a Greek song (Mitibini, about the loss of a money loaded handkerchief between Athens and Pyraeus), Bosnians in Sarajevo know it as Anadolka and Bosnian Muslims use the melody as a provocation in their eternal holy war (banned under Tito). Macedonia calls it a Derwish song: Pace De Drenovci, about a beautiful woman in a village near Prilep. Gypsies from Serbia associate it with Koshtana, another beauty who sang it as a love song. Finally in Bulgaria this is a nationalist song in the Petrova Niva region, where they still celebrate a century old victory over the Ottoman Empire and where they surely don't want to know that the rest of the world regards it as a Turkish song!
