Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain't heard nothin'! You wanna hear "Toot, Toot, Tootsie"? All right, hold on, hold on... [walks back to one of the band members] Lou, listen. Play "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", three chorus, you understand. In the third chorus, I whistle. Now give it to 'em hard and heavy, go right ahead.
Cantor Rabinowitz
Warner Oland · 6 quotes
Sara Rabinowitz
Eugenie Besserer · 6 quotes
Jack Robin
4 quotes
Jakie Rabinowitz
Al Jolson · 4 quotes
Mary Dale
May McAvoy · 3 quotes
Moisha Yudelson
Otto Lederer · 2 quotes
Most scenes together: Cantor Rabinowitz & Sara Rabinowitz (3), Cantor Rabinowitz & Jakie Rabinowitz (2), Sara Rabinowitz & Jakie Rabinowitz (2)
The Jazz Singer quotes
Page 1 of 2
Harry Lee I hope this 'discovery' of yours, Mary, is as good as you think he is.
Don't worry about him. If it's music - he can sing it.
Yes.
I'm glad of it. I'd rather please you then anybody I know of. Oh darlin, would you give me something?
What?
You'll never guess. Shut your eyes mama, shut them for little Jackie. Ho, I'm gonna steal something.
[He kisses her, and they laugh together]
I'll give it back to you to someday, you see if I don't. Mama darling, if I'm a success in this show, well, we're going to move from here. Oh yes, we're move up in to Bronx. A lot of nice green grass up there and a whole lot of people you know of, there's the Ginsburgs and the Guttenburgs, the Goldbergs, a whole lotta Burgs oh I don't know them all. And I'm going to buy you a nice black silk dress mama. You'll see, the butcher's wife, she'll be jealous of you.
Oh no, no...
Yes, she will, you see if she isn't. And I'm going to get you a nice pink dress that will go with your brown eyes.
I, no thank you, no no, I don't need it.
What do you mean no? Who is telling you? Yes, you'll wear pink or else, or else you'll wear pink.
You taught me that music is the voice of God! It is as honorable to sing in the theatre as in the synagogue! My songs mean as much to my audience as yours to your congregation!
Leave my house! I never want to see you again - you jazz singer!
Jakie, your singing would be like sunshine to your Papa.
You don't understand - he ordered me out of the house.
Jakie, remember - - a son's a son no matter if his Papa throws him out a hundred times!
Maybe our boy doesn't want to be a Cantor, Papa...
What has he to say? For five generations a Rabinowitz has been a Cantor - - he must be one!
I have taught him all the hymns and prayers - - he knows them as well as I do.
Yes Papa - he knows all the songs - he has them in his head - - but not in his heart.
I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him!
But Papa - our boy, he does not think like we do.
First he will get a whipping!
If you whip me again, I'll run away - - and never come back!
Note: bolded portion ranked #71 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema
[Listening to Jakie cantoring at Yom Kippur services after the death of his father]
A jazz singer...singing to his God!
Do what is in your heart, Jakie—if you sing and God is not in your voice — your father will know.
Here he belongs. If God wanted him in His house, He would have kept him there. He's not my boy anymore—he belongs to the whole world now.
I came home with a heart full of love, but you don't want to understand. Some day you'll understand, the same as Mama does.
My son came to me in my dreams—he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully. If he would only sing like that tonight—surely he would be forgiven.
My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight – but now I have no son.