Fanny Gordon


Fanny Gordon, - was Polish-Soviet composer. She was only female laykhte-muzik composer in Poland.

Life and career

Gordon was born in 1914 in Yalta, Crimea, Russian Empire. After the Russian Revolution her family emigrated to Poland. Faiga wrote poetry and composed songs for Warsaw cabarets and music theatres.
One of Gordon's most famous songs, composed around 1931, was Przy samowarze, performed by Zula Pogorzelska and Tadeusz Olsza at the Morskie Oko theatre in the revue "Podróż na księżyc" in April 1931. Andrzej Włast wrote the lyrics in 1931 and the song became an international hit, recorded by German and American dance bands. Later a record company asked her to write Russian words to the melody, and the result was «У самовара».
Her other hits included the tango "Skrwawione serce" sung by Polish "queen of tango" Stanisława Nowicka, the foxtrot "Abdul Bej" based on oriental motifs, sung by Tadeusz Faliszewski and Albert Harris, and "Siemieczki", called "The Polish Bublitshki". Her tango "Nietoperze", with lyrics about those who hunt for love at night written by Szer-Szeń. Her "Bal u starego Joska", also known as "Bal na Gnojnej", lyrics by Andrzej Włast, was intended as a send-up of Warsaw "apasz" 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 miłości with a hit, the tango "Indie".
Before World War II Gordon lived alternately in Warsaw and the United States. She was trapped in Warsaw at the outbreak of the war, but escaped to Vilnius, Lithuania, and eventually to Leningrad, where she continued to compose under the names Fania Markovna Kviatkovskaya and Fania Kwiatkowski. She died in Leningrad in 1991.