Which one is your favorite? - LXV -

This week's song is coming from the 1950s. The lyrics were written by Jimmy Kennedy and the music by Nat Simon. The lyrics humorously refer to the official renaming of the city of Constantinople to Istanbul. 

Here is the song for this week;

"Istanbul (not Constantinople)"

The song was written on the 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. It is said to be a response to "C-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-I-N-O-P-L-E" recorded in 1928 by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra.

"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" was originally recorded by the Canadian vocal quartet The Four Lads on August 12, 1953. This recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 40082. It first reached the Billboard magazine charts on October 24, 1953, and it peaked at #10. It was the group's first gold record.

On many websites, there are certain rumors about the song and almost none of them are true.

Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;

• Joe "Fingers" Carr & 80 Drums Around The World - "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"

• They Might Be Giants - "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"

• Caterina Valente - "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"

• Chris Potter & Kenny Werner - "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"

• Bart & Baker - "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"

• Sacados - "Estambul"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.