"The Sheik of Araby" is a song that was written in 1921 by Harry B. Smith and Francis Wheeler, with music by Ted Snyder. It was composed in response to the popularity of the Rudolph Valentino feature film The Sheik. "The Sheik of Araby" was a Tin Pan Alley hit, and was also adopted by early jazz bands, especially in New Orleans, making it a jazz standard. It was a well recognized part of popular culture. A verse also appears in the novel The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1926, Fleischer Studios released a cartoon with this song, recorded in Phonofilm, as part of their Song Car-Tunes series, and a live action short with this title was filmed in Phonofilm in the UK, directed by Miles Mander.

Origin

In 1925, composer Ted Snyder said that the song's original title was "The Rose of Araby". The Indianapolis Star reported, "A friend of Mr. Snyder's, hearing the oriental melody and recalling the popularity of the book The Sheik, held out for the masculine title, but Mr. Snyder said that a sheik meant but little or nothing in the lives of most people, whereas "The Rose of Araby" – ah, there you had romance, and everything. Then he saw the advance posters of Rudolf Valentino in the picture and gave in. So "The Sheik of Araby" came into its own – though Mr. Snyder said he whistled it around his office for some six months without anyone getting excited over it."

Reception

Notable recordings and performances

Related song

In 1926, to go with the film The Son of the Sheik, Ted Snyder worked parts of the melody into "That Night in Araby", a related song with words by Billy Rose.