The Andrews Sisters (music) and Jacques Plante (lyrics). The English lyrics were written by Mitchell Parish. The Andrews Sisters formally broke up in 1953. Maxene and LaVerne tried to continue the act as a duo and met with good press during a 10-day tour of Australia, but a reported suicide attempt by Maxene in December 1954 put a halt to any further tours (Maxene spent a short time in the hospital after swallowing 18 sleeping pills, an occurrence that LaVerne told reporters was an accident). Maxene and LaVerne did appear together on "The Red Skelton Show" on October 26, 1954 singing the humorous
The Andrews Sisters until it was discovered that the song's composers were of Jewish descent. Still, it did not stop concentration camp inmates from secretly singing it, this being most likely since the song was originally a Yiddish song "Bei Mir Bistu Shein", and had been popularized within the Jewish community before it was recorded as a more successful "cover" version by the Andrews sisters. Edward Habib in the CD program notes for "Songs That Won the War Vol. 2 The Hollywood Canteen" states that the Andrews Sisters' radio transcription of Elmer's Tune was "so popular it even played on German radio," noting