I'll See You in C-U-B-A

"I'll See You In C-U-B-A"
Sheet music cover, 1920
Song
Written1919
Released1920
Songwriter(s)Irving Berlin

"I'll See You in C-U-B-A" is a 1919 popular foxtrot Tin Pan Alley[1] song written by Irving Berlin, for the musical revue The Greenwich Village Follies.[2][3] The Follies first opened on July 15, 1919.[2]

The music features a simple rhythm and melody without direct Cuban musical influences.[1] Its lyrics are notable for expressing "comical disdain for prohibition's benefits to society"[4] in response to the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment on January 16, 1919, and advertising Cuba as a tourist destination.[5]

  1. ^ a b Storhoff, Timothy P. (October 21, 2020). Harmony and Normalization: US-Cuban Musical Diplomacy. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4968-3091-3.
  2. ^ a b "The Greenwich Village Follies [1919]". The Greenwich Village Follies [1919]. The Internet Broadway Database. July 21, 2024. Archived from the original on March 30, 2020.
  3. ^ Green, Stanley (2011). Broadway Musicals: Show by Show. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 978-1-55783-784-4.
  4. ^ "Singing the Temperance Blues". Retrieved July 28, 2024.
  5. ^ Furia, Philip; Lasser, Michael (May 12, 2006). America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-47199-6.