The original titled "Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn" ("To Me You‘re Beautiful") was written in Yiddish by Sholom Secunda and Jacob Jacobs for the 1932 musical "I Would If I Could". The play was presented for one season at the Parkway Theatre in Brooklyn, where it was performed by Aaron Lebedoff using the title "Bei Mir Bistu Shein". This track is from the Budapest Klezmer Band and performed in the original Yiddish.

In 1937, the Andrews Sisters manager, Lou Levy, it's rumoured, heard a shoe-shine boy singing the song while he worked. He asked Sammy Cahn & Saul Chaplin to write English lyrics to the original Yiddish lyrics. The song was given a feel more suited to the Andrews Sisters style. The Andrews Sisters (LaVerne, Maxine and Patty) had their first big hit with the song, now titled "Bei Mir Bist Du Schein (Means That You‘re Grand)" and the original writers of the song received just $30.00, their rights to the song having been sold just a week before.