Recently I came across an unexpected clip from the Tonight Show from 1955 featuring a swing version of the Yiddish song, “In mayne oygn bistu sheyn” (you’re beautiful in my eyes), sung by a duo called the Burton Sisters. The recording was surprising to me for several reasons. First, it’s really good, and I’m not particularly a fan of swing music. Secondly, while the Yiddish sounds contemporary to my ear, the English lyrics haven’t aged as well. Usually, when I listen to bilingual Yiddish/English songs I have the opposite reaction, feeling that the English lyrics make the Yiddish sound dated. And finally, I wondered: who are the Burton Sisters with their elegant dresses and how did they end up performing in Yiddish on the Tonight Show at a time when it was rare to hear anything on American TV that wasn’t in English?