Expert: Skeeter - 2/16/2007

Question
Hello

Back in the mid 60's when there were a lot of protest songs doing the rounds, there was a song I believe to be called 'Now  Is The Time' by a female artist. The tune used was 'Hava Nagila' (sorry if that is not spelled correctly), starts off slowly and works it way up.

Some of the lyrics in this song were 'I went and took a look in my old history book, it's there in black and white for all to see'.

If you, or any of your readers can enlighten me as to the name of the artist or the song title if it is wrong, it would be most appreciated.

Thank you

Answer
 AHA!   I think I found it!

  I am suprised I found this, it is well outside the realm of rock music.   
  What I have found is that Adolph Green and  Betty Comden wrote a song called NOW, and as best I can find out it was recorded by Lena Horne.  
 The lyrics match what you posted.  
  It seems that Lena Horne recorded it on 20th Century Fox,  and it was released as a single in 1963 but didn't get much air play.  It seems to appear on an album that was released in 1964 called "Here's Lena Now".

   I can't find any evidence of this being released on CD,  but I found a site that has a copy of it in vinyl for 10 bucks.  http://www.shangri.com/LP-Jazz.html