Like a Crazy Bird: Behind the 30 Greatest Songs of Composer Nachum Heiman | Dudi Fatimer
The surprising meeting with David Bowie, the hit gifted to the wedding of Orna and Moshe Datz, the connection with Nana Mouskouri, and the Hebrew song written for Mike Brant. A special project: the fascinating stories behind the 30 greatest songs of Nachum Heiman.
Nitzanim Nir'u Ba'aretz (Lyrics: Song of Songs, Chapter 2) | 1951
In 1951, at the age of 16 and a half, Nachum Heiman set to music words from the second chapter of the Song of Songs, "Nitzanim Nir'u Ba'aretz" ("Flowers appeared in the land"). This was his first song, which over the years became one of the most identified spring songs in Hebrew music.
Heiman's musical path began even earlier. After his parents' divorce, at age 14, he moved as an outside child to Kibbutz Na'an, where he received his musical foundations from composers Yehuda Oren and David Zehavi. Later, after his mother remarried, he moved to live with her in Rehovot, where he composed this song. "I was close to my 17th year when this melody was written, with the accordion on my shoulders, in a side room at one of the training centers for folk dance instructors in the village," Heiman recounted. "These were the buds of my early creativity."
The song received numerous performances, including by Nehama Hendel, Arala Bar-Lev, the Gilboa Quintet, and HaGevatron.
Le'an Noshevet HaRuach (Lyrics: Ze'ev Havatzelet) | 1960
"In 1960, I returned to Kibbutz Beit Alfa after a period when I lived in dormitories in Jerusalem. There I met Nachche, who at that very time was establishing the Gilboa Quintet (a musical ensemble composed of members of the kibbutzim Beit Alfa and Heftziba - D.F.) and began recording his first compositions," says singer Arala Bar-Lev.
"I joined the ensemble as a soloist, and among the songs I sang was our most famous one: 'Le'an Noshevet HaRuach' ('Where the wind blows'), which Nachche composed especially for the opening event of the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds. Later, the HaGevatron ensemble also recorded this song, but we were the first."
Et Va'ani VeHaRuach (Lyrics: Yoram Taharlev) | 1964
This song marked several beginnings: it was the first written by Yoram Taharlev, and also the first recorded by the Parvarim duo. It was also characterized by an unusual musical move for its time: in the transitions between the verses, the duo members whistled the chorus, which was considered a bold step then, as it was one of the first times that whistling was integrated as a central part of a song recording.
"I wrote the song while riding a bus from Haifa to Tel Aviv," Taharlev told me in the past. "After I finished, I folded the page and put it in my shirt pocket. On Friday, when my then-wife, Nurit Zarchi, collected the clothes to send them to the kibbutz laundry, she found the song in the pocket. She said to me: 'This is a very nice song. Why don't you send it to a composer?'
"The only composer whose address I knew was Nachum Heiman. I sent him the song, and a few days later he informed me that he had composed it and that the Parvarim duo had decided to record it for their debut record. From there, my career as a songwriter actually began."
The song was included in the Parvarim duo's debut EP in 1964 and quickly became a big hit. Years later, it received an English version titled "You And Me And The Morning Wind" performed by the Irish duo Jimmy MacGregor and Robin Hall. The English lyrics were written by none other than David Bowie.
"Dad and David Bowie were neighbors in London," says Si Heiman, Nachum Heiman's daughter. "They lived door to door. Dad played him many of his compositions, which had already become hits in Israel. Bowie was enthusiastic about 'Et Va'ani VeHaRuach' by the Parvarim. He took the melody, wrote new English lyrics for it, and produced it in the spirit of Irish music."
Ilu Kol HaOhavim (Lyrics: Yossi Gamzu) | 1964
The song, written by Yossi Gamzu and composed by Nachum Heiman, was first recorded in 1964 by the HaGevatron ensemble, with whom Heiman worked in those years as a musical director, and was performed for the first time on the Kol Yisrael radio program "Moadon HaZemer" ("Song Club"). "When Yossi sent me the song, I loved the words very much, the dialogue and communication between people, and the love for life that arose from them," Heiman recounted.
A year later, Chava Alberstein recorded it for her debut EP, and in 1968 the Parvarim duo recorded it for their album "Yesh Li Ahava" ("I Have Love"). It was precisely the Parvarim's performance that became the version most identified with the song.
HaGavia (Lyrics: Yoram Taharlev) | 1965
One of the prominent songs from the 1965 Israel Song Festival was "HaGavia" ("The Cup"), another collaboration between Yoram Taharlev and Nachum Heiman. As was customary in those years, the song was performed at the festival by two different performers: Nehama Hendel and the Gesher HaYarkon Trio. It won second place.
The song's lyrics were written in the first-person feminine - a choice that characterized quite a few of Taharlev's songs. The speaker in the song addresses the cup and asks it to reveal to her who her lover will be and when he will arrive.
Taharlev told about the inspiration for the song and the similarity he found between it and Chaim Nachman Bialik's "Lo Beyom Velo Belayla" ("Neither by day nor by night"), in which the girl addresses the acacia tree and asks who her groom will be: "In both songs, there is a great fear of disappointment," he told me in the past. "In Bialik's song, the girl fears that her father will marry her off to an old man. In my song, the disappointment is that of the writer, who failed to reach Bialik's level..."
Re'ach Tapuach Ve'odem Shani (Lyrics: Yoram Taharlev) | 1966
In 1966, Nachum Heiman and Yoram Taharlev submitted the song "Re'ach Tapuach Ve'odem Shani" ("Scent of an apple and scarlet blush") to the Israel Song Festival. "I wrote the song to an existing melody," Taharlev told me. "Nachum brought me the melody he wrote and explained to me that the song is written in a seven-eighths rhythm. To this day, I don't know what seven-eighths is, but he said it's a Mediterranean rhythm, and therefore, when I wrote it, the poems of the Golden Age poets in Spain stood before me. The song I wanted to resemble was Moshe ibn Ezra's spring song 'Kutonot Pasim' ('Striped garments')."
The song was accepted to the festival and performed alternately by the Parvarim duo and the Gesher HaYarkon Trio. It won second place in the competition. In that same song festival, another Heiman composition participated, to words from the Song of Songs - "Magadim" ("Fruits"), which was performed by singer Aliza Azikri.
Zraim Shel Mastik (Lyrics: Lea Naor) | 1967
"Zraim Shel Mastik" ("Seeds of Gum"), the theme song from the famous children's musical starring Dalia Friedland and the children of Kibbutz Beit Alfa, was written by Lea Naor and composed by Nachum Heiman - and over the years became a milestone in Hebrew music for children.
"In 1965, Nachche approached me and asked me for a song that would be suitable for the end-of-year party at the school in the kibbutz where he lived then," says Naor. "I opened the drawer and there was one song called 'Mi Achal Et HaYareach?' ('Who ate the moon?') that seemed suitable for children to me."
However, the first song didn't connect with Heiman. "A few days later, I received a letter from him in which he wrote that he tried to compose the song and didn't quite succeed, and asked if there was another song. I didn't want to disappoint him, so I wrote 'Zraim Shel Mastik' and sent it to him. A few days later, he replied that he had composed the song and it turned out great, and asked me to write ten or 12 more songs, with a suspense story that would connect them, for a whole play with his songs for the end of the year."
At the end of that year, the school in Beit Alfa put on the play, which was a great success and was soon performed in other kibbutzim as well. Later, the children of Beit Alfa were invited to record the songs at the Kol Yisrael studios in Jerusalem, together with Dalia Friedland. The record was released in 1967 and became one of the most important children's albums in the history of Hebrew music - and also Heiman's first significant experience in creating for a young audience.
Kefel (Lyrics: Yehuda Gur-Arie) | 1968
When visiting Nachum Heiman, Chava Alberstein leafed through the notebooks where he kept his melodies and ideas, and there she discovered the words of "Kefel" ("Doubling") by the poet and translator, Holocaust survivor Yehuda Gur-Arie. "Nachche didn't attach special importance to the song at that moment and even thought it wasn't finished, but this short and personal song captured my heart," Alberstein recounted in the past.
"Unlike many songs from that period, which were full of nature descriptions and biblical images, 'Kefel' was an internal and thoughtful song, dealing with the contradictions and conflicting feelings within a person. I called it a 'Jewish haiku' because I was amazed at how much can be said in so few words. It is a song that, in retrospect, touches everything I do all my life."
The song was first recorded in Alberstein's performance accompanied by guitar only, for an album of Nachum Heiman's songs ("Dvarim SheOhavim" - "Things That Are Loved"). Later, when it was included in her album "Mot HaParpar" ("Death of the Butterfly") from 1968, the record company approved adding two instruments to the accompaniment besides the guitar - oboe and double bass.
Rak Ed Kolech (Lyrics: Eitan Peretz) | 1968
In 1968, Nachum Heiman composed "Rak Ed Kolech" ("Only the echo of your voice") to the words of Eitan Peretz - but before the song received a Hebrew performance, Heiman dreamed of it in a completely different voice: the voice of the international Greek singing star Nana Mouskouri.
"We lived in Paris at that time," Si Heiman recalls. "Great Israeli singers who came to visit us were constantly entering our house, and the great singers of France also began to arrive. In a very rainy and snowy winter, a very tall Greek woman with glasses that seemed like madness to me then entered our house, and introduced herself as Nana Mouskouri.
"My dad played her a song in French. I remember he said to me in French: 'Go to sleep', and gave me a small pat on the head. Then Nana said to him: 'No, leave her, she's listening'. When I came to go up to the room, embarrassed, she called me to return. There she learned 'Rak Ed Kolech' for the first time in the French version, with words by the songwriter Eddy Marnay. In fact, this was the first performance of the song."
Heiman went through many hardships until Mouskouri knocked on his door: he positioned himself in a bistro under the building where her record company sat, located her address using her car number, and finally arrived at her house in an attempt to convince her to listen to the melody.
"Nana Mouskouri opened the door and asked 'Who are you?'. Before I finished saying the word 'Israel', she began to close the door in my face," Heiman recounted. "I stuck my left shoe between the doorframe and the door, and while begging her for ten minutes of her life to let her hear the song, I laid out before her the ten thousand kilometers and dreams I had gone through on my way to her."
The effort paid off: "There was probably something so pathetic in me that Nana couldn't resist. That same evening she introduced me to Eddy Marnay, and within two weeks she recorded the song."
The French version, called "Le Jour où la colombe" ("The day the dove"), later became one of the songs identified with Mouskouri's struggle against the regime of the colonels in Greece.
A few months later, the Hebrew version was also released, performed by the Parvarim duo, and became a big hit in Israel.
Shir Ahava Yashan (Lyrics: Natan Yonatan) | 1968
The song was born from a meeting between a melody with a Mediterranean character and an imaginary love story between Anita and Juan. The words were written by Natan Yonatan to Nachum Heiman's melody, and the song - also known as "Romance" - became a classic over the years and received many cover versions, including in English and French.
"My friend Nachche brought me the song in the form of a melody written under the influence of ancient Andalusian music and gypsy music, and in this atmosphere I chose the names of the song's heroes - Anita and Juan," Yonatan recounted in the past. "If Nachche hadn't come to me with the melody, I wouldn't have written the text about these characters."
The song was first recorded in 1968 by the Darom duo - Danny Golan and Zion Tzadok - and quickly became a big hit. "At one of the memorial ceremonies where we performed after the Six-Day War, Nachche approached us," Danny Golan told me. "He introduced himself, complimented our performance, and said he had a song for us. It was 'Shir Ahava Yashan' ('Old Love Song'). The rest is history."
Fuga Ktana (Little Fugue) | 1968
In 1968, Nachum Heiman was invited to write a piece that would complete the Parvarim duo's album "Yesh Li Ahava" ("I Have Love"). Heiman recounted that while sitting to compose the piece, he heard from a gramophone in the neighbor's house the "Toccata and Fugue" by Johann Sebastian Bach, and decided to create a melody inspired by the famous work.
The fugue is a musical style in which a central theme repeats itself again and again, each time moving to another voice within the ensemble, and thus the work is built layer by layer. Ehud Manor wrote words for the melody, but in the end, it was decided to record the work without words - as an instrumental piece.
In 1969, the French singer Maxime Le Forestier approached Heiman and asked to use the melody. He wrote new French words for it, under the name "Petite fugue", and performed the work, which achieved great success in France.
Merdaf (Lyrics: Yaron London) | 1969
In 1969, director Micha Shagrir approached Nachum Heiman to write for his film "HaMilchama LeAchar HaMilchama" ("The War After the War") a melody for a text written by Yaron London about "Eretz HaMerdafim" ("Land of Pursuits"), the nickname given to the Jordan Valley due to the many pursuits that security forces conducted there after Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated from Jordan.
Shagrir asked Heiman to compose the song in a fast and tense rhythm, in a pursuit atmosphere. The one who performed the song in the film was Chava Alberstein, and simultaneously Yehoram Gaon's version of the song was published. Immediately upon its release to the radio, it became a huge hit and one of the anthems of the War of Attrition.
Years later, London said that he regrets writing such a "fascist" song, and that "the stench of blood and soil myths reeks from it". He testified that this is his most hated song among his songs, and added in a past interview to "Ma'ariv": "I enjoy much more the French version of the song... which succeeded there with completely different words under the title 'Bunch of Violets'."
Nachal HaTaninim (Lyrics: Ehud Manor) | 1969
Sometimes a song is born from an image, a memory, and a childhood landscape. So it was with "Nachal HaTaninim" ("Crocodile River"), written by Ehud Manor and performed by Chava Alberstein in 1969.
The melody was first written as a piece for the film "The War After the War", which dealt with life in Israel after the Six-Day War. Alberstein, who connected with the melody, asked Manor to write words for it, and Manor chose to return to his childhood landscape - the Taninim River that flowed near the colony of Binyamina, where he was born and raised. Manor chose to add the definite article 'he' to the river's name, as is customary with the names of other rivers.
The song became a kind of journey of longing for the place where Manor grew up, for the nature and memories of his childhood. It is named after the river, although the words "Nachal Taninim" and even the word "Nachal" (river) do not appear in its lyrics.
Shir BeArba'a Batim (Lyrics: Ehud Manor) | 1969
In 1969, Ehud Manor asked Nachum Heiman to create a song together for the Israel Song Festival held that year. The two met in Manor's kitchen, and there the song was born. But after they finished the work of writing and composing, a small dispute remained between them: what to call it.
The one who found the solution was Manor's wife, singer Ofra Fuchs. "I suggested they call it 'Shir BeArba'a Batim' ('Song in Four Verses') according to the number of verses in the song," she says.
The one chosen to perform the song was Ilanit, then still half of the Ilan and Ilanit duo, in her first solo performance. "Participating in this festival was accompanied by great excitement for me," Ilanit recalls. "It was very difficult to get accepted to the festival, and usually veteran singers performed in it, and I was a young soloist then. So when Ehud brought me the song, I immediately responded to him."
Chofim (Lyrics: Natan Yonatan) | 1969
"Chofim" ("Shores") was written as early as 1943, when Natan Yonatan was 20 years old and served as an instructor at a summer camp at the Heftziba farm in the Hadera River. The inspiration came from a natural phenomenon he observed - a river that flowed on its way to the sea, but was absorbed in the sands and disappeared before it reached the water.
The song was first published in Yonatan's book "Shirim LeOrech HaChof" ("Songs Along the Shore") in 1962, and only later received Heiman's melody. "One day Natan invited me to Kibbutz Sarid, where he lived then, to write music for words he wrote for a 12th-grade graduation party," Heiman recounted in the past. "After the party, we went to his house, I sat down at the piano and played a new melody. Suddenly Natan said: 'I have words suitable for this melody', and immediately began to sing 'Chofim hem le'itim...' ('Shores are sometimes...'). Thus our first song was born."
Originally, the song opened with the words: "Chofim hem le'itim ga'aguim lanachal she'ahav, yesh be'mekomot shelanu nachalei achzav" ("Shores are sometimes longing for the river that loved, there are in our places dry rivers"), but at Heiman's request, who wanted to adapt the words to the melody, Yonatan changed the line to "Chofim hem le'itim ga'aguim lanachal. Ra'iti pa'am chof she'nachal azav" ("Shores are sometimes longing for the river. I once saw a shore that a river left").
The song was first recorded in 1969 by the Nahal Troupe team and two years later was performed on a television program by members of the Nahal Troupe, including Yardena Arazi, Gidi Gov, and Efraim Shamir, and became especially identified with Arazi. Another well-known version was recorded by Chava Alberstein in 1975.
Simlat Klulot (Lyrics: Dudu Barak) | 1970
"Simlat Klulot" ("Wedding Dress"), written by Dudu Barak and composed by Nachum Heiman, was first performed at the 1970 Israel Song Festival by the Ma'apil Trio, with soloist Irit Sandner.
"The song was written for the wedding of my brother Ketri and my then-sister-in-law Tova," Barak says. "The song was composed by Nachum for Rika Zarai, who were both in Paris then. Rika was in a cast from head to toe, lying in a hospital after a serious car accident, and despite this, she recorded a whole album of Nachche's songs - all lying down."
At that time, Gil Aldema approached Barak, who was in New York, and asked him to write a song for the Israel Song Festival. "The invitation was transatlantic: Nachche in Paris, Gil in Tel Aviv, and I in New York," Barak says. "Gil asked me to cut back and write only three verses. A completely earthly song."
Barak says that the song was submitted to the festival without revealing that it had already been recorded previously by Rika Zarai - as this could have disqualified it according to the competition's regulations. "The Ma'apil Trio made a mistake in the song's lyrics during the live performance, and yet it was accepted as it was by the listening audience."
Arrava (Lyrics: Frank Gérald) | 1974
One of the big hits of the Israeli-French singer Mike Brant was included in his 1974 album. The French text was written by the French songwriter Frank Gérald, who worked closely with Brant. "Mike was like a son to me when we lived in Paris," Heiman recounted in the past. "He would come to us for meals on Fridays. My daughters, Si and Billy, would take care of his fan mail and in fact, he would pay them to answer 500 letters every week in his name.
"Despite this, musically we collaborated only on two songs: 'Erev Tov' ('Good Evening'), which Mike wrote and performed and which in the end did not materialize, and 'Arrava'. When Mike became famous, his producers asked me for a song that would combine Hebrew and French, and then the idea of 'Arrava' came to my mind, which is a word that integrates well in French. The song included only one word in Hebrew: Arava (steppe)."
Tevat HaZemara Nifredet (Lyrics: Natan Alterman) | 1974
Years after Natan Alterman's first book, "Kochavim Bachutz" ("Stars Outside", 1938), was published, Nachum Heiman found in one of its poems a source of inspiration for a new melody: "Tevat HaZemara Nifredet" ("Separate Music Box").
Alterman wrote the poem during his stay in Nancy, France, where he lived for about two years, and described in it the sunset over a European city and the parting from the "music box" - that old mechanical musical instrument that was identified with streets and markets in Europe.
Heiman composed the song during a period when he stayed in London. His melody was first released in the performance of the Parvarim duo in 1974, on the album "Shtei Gitarot VeHaParvarim" ("Two Guitars and the Parvarim").
Kemo Tzemach Bar (Lyrics: Rachel Shapira) | 1975
"Kemo Tzemach Bar" ("Like a Wild Plant"), the theme song from Chava Alberstein's 1975 album, which became one of the songs most identified with feelings of longing, parting, and breaking, characterized the atmosphere of depression that prevailed in the country after the Yom Kippur War.
The song's evolution began in Kibbutz Beit Alfa, where Nachum Heiman lived near the writer Naomi Frankel. After a group of girls arrived at the kibbutz, Frankel heard the personal story of one of them, and inspired by it, she wrote the book "Dodi VeRe'i" ("My Beloved and My Friend"), which was later adapted into a television series that aired on Channel 1 in 1975.
The song chosen to accompany the series was "Kemo Tzemach Bar". At first, Frankel approached Heiman to compose the song, and later the series' producers asked Rachel Shapira to write the words. Heiman recommended Chava Alberstein to perform it.
"Nachche's melody is to this day in my eyes one of the most beautiful and moving that I know," says Shapira. "Over time I understood that I actually wrote something quite accurate about myself and about the movement that is also familiar to me, between strangeness and belonging. It is a parting song, and although the song is broadcast on Memorial Days, it was not written in this aspect." Over the years, the song received other performances, including a version by Si Heiman, Nachum Heiman's daughter.
HaChol Yizkor (Lyrics: Natan Yonatan) | 1977
"HaChol Yizkor" ("The Sand Will Remember") was written by Natan Yonatan while he was in London, and was first published in his book "Shirim LeOrech HaChof" ("Songs Along the Shore"). In 1977, Nachum Heiman composed it as part of a special project initiated by the Galei Tzahal radio station for the annual hit parade.
The first to perform the song was Ruchama Raz, but the performance most identified with it is that of Chava Alberstein, who recorded it in 1980.
"This song was born, apparently, twice - both for the poet and for me, in moments of sadness and acceptance of the cycle of life of all of us," Heiman recounted. "People tended to attribute it to the disappearance of the submarine 'Dakar' or to the fall in battle of Lior, Natan Yonatan's son. Either way, this is a song that mourns the loss of youth in its words and melody, and it was adopted as a memorial song for the fallen."
Sderot BaGeshem (Lyrics: Natan Alterman) | 1977
"Sderot BaGeshem" ("Boulevards in the Rain") is one of the songs that observe the city through a small and intimate moment of a winter walk in the streets after the rain, alongside his laughing daughter (poet Tirza Atar - D.F.). Alterman turns the everyday sights of the city - the glass, the iron, and the stone - into an experience of renewal, memory, and emotion.
Nachum Heiman composed the song while he lived in London, and sent it to Izhar Cohen, who was then a young singer at the beginning of his path. "I have no idea how Nachum heard about me," Cohen says. "I was a young singer who tried to develop a career. He sent the song and asked that I perform it."
Cohen recorded the song in the Galei Tzahal studio in 1977, according to an arrangement sent to him from Heiman. "In my opinion, this is the most beautiful song written about the city of Tel Aviv," he says. "Nachche's melody and Alterman's words captured me, and that's how the song rolled to the radio and to airings for years."
Od Chozer HaNigun (Lyrics: Natan Alterman) | 1980
The song that opens Natan Alterman's first book, "Kochavim Bachutz" ("Stars Outside"), was published without a name and over the years was named after its first line: "Od Chozer HaNigun SheZanachta LaShav" ("The melody you abandoned in vain returns again").
Over the years, the song received several melodies. The first was by Naomi Shemer, performed by Ilana Rovina in 1970. At the end of the 70s, Nachum Heiman also joined the song's composers. Chava Alberstein was the first to perform his melody, on her album "Ani Holechet Elai" ("I Am Going to Myself") from 1980, which was entirely dedicated to Heiman's melodies. For the purpose of recording the album, Alberstein traveled to London, where Heiman stayed in those days, and received from him the melody for the song.
Sus Me'etz (Lyrics: Hadva Harkavi) | 1983
In 1983, Nurit Galron recorded in London her album "Ani Ra'iti Yofi" ("I Saw Beauty"), under the musical production of Nachum Heiman. One of the prominent songs from it was "Sus Me'etz" ("Wooden Horse"), the words of which were written by the poet Hadva Harkavi.
"'Sus Me'etz' came to me in Nachche's voice, accompanied by piano and in a march rhythm," Galron recounted in the past. "London turned it into an energetic rock and roll song. Every time I arrive in London, I am filled again with the feeling I had then, as if I conquered the world."
Anshei HaGeshem (Lyrics: Rachel Shapira) | 1984
When Nachum Heiman returned to Israel after about a decade in London, he established the Chofim ensemble, in which he gave a stage to a new generation of singers, including Moshe Datz, Meir Banai, Chani Livne, and Liza Lang. Alongside his known classics, Heiman also integrated new songs, including "Anshei HaGeshem" ("People of the Rain"), which was first recorded in 1984.
The song's words were written by Rachel Shapira as early as the 60s, but they remained for many long years in the drawer. "First there was a text and it was with me for years, almost the most years that any song has been in a drawer," says Shapira. "All kinds of composers saw it and it has very many melodies and performances of what are called the best singers of Israel, kept in a hidden drawer at my house. But it wasn't recorded until it reached Nachche, who composed it in a very friendly composition.
"I think that what made this song a hit is the arrangement by Arik Rudich. He tried to imitate and demonstrate all the taps of the rain. But this is not a song about rain, this is not a weather forecast, this is a completely different rain. In my eyes, this is not such a complicated song, but since the mystery has already become part of its texture, it is not wise to intervene and explain what it is about."
Shirim Ad Kan (Lyrics: Natan Yonatan) | 1984
The words of "Shirim Ad Kan" ("Songs Until Here") were published by Natan Yonatan in 1979, in a collection of poems bearing the same name, which dealt with the country's landscapes, bereavement, love, and longing. During his stay in London, Nachum Heiman composed the song, without knowing that Gidi Koren had already composed it previously for the Brothers and Sisters ensemble.
The one who made Heiman's melody the most known was the Chofim ensemble, which recorded the song in 1984. Later, the melody received other performances, including by HaGevatron and HaDuda'im.
Kemo Tzipor Meturefet (Lyrics: Itzik Einhorn) | 1985
In 1985, shortly after representing Israel for the second time at Eurovision, Izhar Cohen recorded his second album, "Havtacha" ("Promise"). One of the album's songs, "Kemo Tzipor Meturefet" ("Like a Crazy Bird"), soon became one of the biggest hits in his career.
"I visited Nachum at his home in Jaffa with Kobi Oshrat, who arranged the album," Cohen recalls. "Nachum wanted to play us songs and pulled out a sketch of 'Kemo Tzipor Meturefet' with English text, performed by the renowned American singer Tony Bennett. I immediately connected with the song, and Nachum thought it suited me. I agreed with him completely."
According to him, the recording itself was also exceptional. "I arrived at the studio before Kobi, asked the technician to play me the playback, I entered, sang, and that was the end of the story. After about a quarter of an hour Kobi arrived and said: 'Let's start working'. I said to him: 'The song is already ready'. He laughed, but when he listened to the recording, we closed the studio and went home. The song was recorded in only one take."
Shir LeMa'ancha (Lyrics: Rachel Shapira) | 1987
"Shir LeMa'ancha" ("Song For You"), written by Rachel Shapira, was born from the friendship between Heiman and the duo Orna and Moshe Datz. "Nachum Heiman said: 'I can bring you a check as a gift, and I can bring you a song as a gift. What do you prefer?'" the two recounted in the past. "So although we really needed the check, we chose the song. We performed it for the first time at our wedding before friends."
The song was included in the duo's debut album "Be'ota HaMita" ("In the Same Bed", 1987) and became a hit from the first moment.
Eretz Shiv'at HaMinim (Lyrics: Dudu Barak) | 1989
Sometimes a song needs to wait years until it finds the performance that gives it a new life. "Eretz Shiv'at HaMinim" ("Land of the Seven Species"), written by Dudu Barak and composed by Nachum Heiman, was born as early as the late 60s, but achieved wide publicity only years later.
Heiman's melody first appeared as a piece in the documentary film "The War After the War". In 1969, the song received an international evolution, when the French singer Marie Laforêt performed it in a French version titled "A qui la faute" ("Whose fault?") to words written by the songwriter Eddy Marnay.
Only in 1989 was the song first recorded in Hebrew, in the performance of Chani Livne, and included in her album "Vocalise". In the song, which over the years became identified with the holiday of Shavuot, the seven species are integrated - wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranate, olive, and date - as a symbol of the country's landscapes and its abundance.
"Nachche and I worked on joint projects," says Chani Livne. "One day Nachche raised an idea that I would record his song for a radio program called 'Erev Al Gagot' ("Evening on Roofs"). I did it in a vocalise without musical instruments. After that, we said, Nachche and I, that it sounds so interesting that maybe we should make a whole record that is only in this style. Thus the album and the song 'Eretz Shiv'at HaMinim' were born. My fate was good to work with this talented composer, who always had and will have an important place in my heart."
Shuvi Bat Yerushalayim (Lyrics: Dudu Barak) | 1990
A television program that dealt with Nachum Heiman's Sabbath songs was what led to the birth of the song "Shuvi Bat Yerushalayim" ("Return, Daughter of Jerusalem"). Heiman approached Dudu Barak and asked him to write a song about Jerusalem.
"It was hard for me to return and write about Jerusalem, to which I had tied many songs before, but Nachche urged me to write about my personal memories of the city," Barak says. "When I chose Shoshana Damari to perform the song, in the spectacular arrangement of Matti Caspi, may he rest in peace, I knew I had a precious diamond in my hands."
Magash HaKesef (Lyrics: Natan Alterman) | 2001
Few songs have become an inseparable part of the Israeli national memory like "Magash HaKesef" ("The Silver Platter") by Natan Alterman. The song was published in his column "HaTur HaShvi'i" ("The Seventh Column") in the "Davar" newspaper, shortly after the UN decision on the partition plan and at the beginning of the War of Independence.
Alterman wrote in the song about the heavy price required on the way to the establishment of the state, and about the image of the young fighters who sacrificed their lives for its establishment. Over the years, the expression "silver platter" became an idiom describing the contribution of the fallen in the War of Independence.
The song was composed in the past also by Nurit Hirsh and Uri Kriv.
