Wacky Wednesday Comedy Showcase: Allan Sherman Sings Parodies on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966

Allan Sherman dominated the world of song parody during the 1960s and recorded eight albums, starting with My Son the Folksinger.  

Listening to or reading his lyrics is a crash course in pop culture of the 1960s, with Sherman taking satiric swipes at summer camp, psychiatry, fad diets, Hadassah ladies, school dropouts, and upward mobility.

The popularity of his parodies got him many guest appearances on TV variety shows.

We just came across a rare video of Sherman on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966 singing a medley of takeoffs on classic popular songs including Auld Lang Syne, Aura Lee, On Top of Old Smoky, Charmaine, Too Young, Coming Through the Rye, and Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home.

Enjoy!

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Allan Sherman's "A Waste of Money" Parody of Herb Alpert's "A Taste of Honey"

One year ago we posted a video clip of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass performing their 1965 hit A Taste of Honey. Today we were going through a collection of parody songs by Allan Sherman and came across his takeoff on this musical classic called A Waste of Money. 

In Sherman's version, he is trying to win girlfriends with a Mercedes-Benz car and some jewelry, but it doesn't work out so he calls it a waste of money.

Enjoy!

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  #Throwback Thursday      #TBT

Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Allan Sherman Sings "Me" - Parody of "Come Back to Sorrento"

Allan Sherman dominated the world of song parody during the 1960s and recorded eight albums, starting with My Son the Folksinger.  

Listening to or reading his lyrics is a crash course in pop culture of the 1960s, with Sherman taking satiric swipes at summer camp, psychiatry, fad diets, Hadassah ladies, school dropouts, and upward mobility.

The popularity of his parodies got him many guest appearances on TV variety shows.

We just came across a rare recording of Sherman singing "Me", a parody of "Come Back to Sorrento", a funny description of many of  his body parts. Here is the video of him singing the song, followed by a video clip of Luciano Pavarotti singing  "Sorrento", the basis for Sherman's takeoff.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday      #TBT

Wacky Wednesday Comedy Showcase: Allan Sherman Sings "A Most Unusual Play" Parody of Avant Garde Theater

Allan Sherman had a huge repertory of parody songs, so huge that we keep finding some on the Internet that we had missed when listening to his many albums.

Not all of his parodies made it onto record albums. We found a video clip of Sherman singing a parody of the Jimmy McHugh song A Most Unusual Day. In January 1966, he performed A Most Unusual Play on the Dean Martin Show, a spoof of avant garde theater.

Enjoy!

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Wacky Wednesday Comedy Showcase: Allan Sherman Sings "Strange Things in My Soup"

Allan Sherman dominated the world of song parody during the 1960s and recorded eight albums, starting with My Son the Folksinger.  

Listening to or reading his lyrics is a crash course in pop culture of the 1960s, with Sherman taking satiric swipes at summer camp, psychiatry, fad diets, Hadassah ladies, school dropouts, and upward mobility.

The popularity of his parodies got him many guest appearances on TV variety shows. In this video clip, Sherman sings his take-off on Frank Sinatra's popular Strangers in the Night.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Allan Sherman Sings "Westchester Hadassah", a Takeoff on "Winchester Cathedral"

Allan Sherman had a huge repertory of parody songs, so huge that we keep finding some on the Internet that we had missed when listening to his many albums.

One such song is Westchester Hadassah, a parody of the song Winchester Cathedral, released in 1966 by The New Vaudeville Band, a British novelty group established by the song's composer, Geoff Stephens.

It reached No.1 in Canada on the RPM 100 national singles charts co-charting with the Dana Rollin version, and shortly thereafter in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song won the 1967 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Recording, despite not being a rock and roll song. 

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 

 

   #Throwback Thursday      #TBT

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special - Allan Sherman (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah) Returns to Camp Granada

Many of us have memorized the words of Allan Sherman's big hit novelty song Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter from Camp) that he recorded in 1963. But did you know that in 1966 he came up with a sequel, Return to Camp Granada?

Sherman appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on April 24, 1966 to sing the updated version.

The melody of the original version is taken from the ballet Dance of the Hours from the Opera "La Gioconda" by Amilcare Ponchielli, while Sherman wrote the lyrics with Lou Busch.

He based the lyrics on letters of complaint which he received from his son Robert who was attending Camp Champlain, a summer camp in Westport, New York.

In 2020, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Here's Allan Sherman on the Ed Sullivan Show with his Return to Camp Granada.

Enjoy!

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   #Throwback Thursday      #TBT

Comedy Showcase: An Updated Parody of "Hello Muddah Hello Faddah" With Reversed Demographics

The kid that would have written the letter from camp in Hello Muddah Hello Faddah by Allan Sherman would be a senior citizen today. 

YouTube poster Don Goldberg has hit a home run with his revision of the song as a parody of the parody, imagining what it might be like to be a senior on the flip side of the demographics writing to an adult son and daughter.

Enjoy!

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Wacky Wednesday Comedy Showcase: Allan Sherman Joins Andy Williams in a Parody of Chim Chim Cheree

Allan Sherman dominated the world of song parody during the 1960s and recorded eight albums, starting with My Son the Folksinger.  

Listening to or reading his lyrics is a crash course in pop culture of the 1960s, with Sherman taking satiric swipes at summer camp, psychiatry, fad diets, Hadassah ladies, school dropouts, and upward mobility.

The popularity of his parodies got him many guest appearances on TV variety shows. In this video clip, Sherman joins Andy Williams in a take-off of Chim Chim Cheree that pokes fun at all the special ingredients touted in 1960s commercials, such as teflon, orlon, banlon, marfac, melmac, fluoristan, lanolin, and many others.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

 

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Allan Sherman Sings "Smog Gets in Your Eyes"

Allan Sherman dominated the world of song parody during the 1960s and recorded eight albums, starting with My Son the Folksinger.  

Listening to or reading his lyrics is a crash course in pop culture of the 1960s, with Sherman taking satiric swipes at summer camp, psychiatry, fad diets, Hadassah ladies, school dropouts, and upward mobility.

The popularity of his parodies got him many guest appearances on TV variety shows. In this video clip, Sherman prefaces his rendition of Smog Gets in Your Eyes, a take-off on Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach's song Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, with a joke on how the California city of Van Nuys got its name.

Enjoy!

 

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#Throwback Thursday   #TBT

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Dean Martin and Vic Damone Join Allan Sherman in a Medley of His Parodies

Allan Sherman dominated the world of song parody during the 1960s and recorded eight albums.  Listening to or reading his lyrics is a crash course in pop culture of the 1960s, with Sherman taking satiric swipes at summer camp, psychiatry, fad diets, Hadassah ladies, school dropouts, and upward mobility.

He usually performed alone, but in this rare undated video clip, probably on The Dean Martin Show, Sherman joined Martin and Vic Damone in performing a medley of his best parodies. None of the songs are sung in their full versions, but there is enough of each one to make you laugh and search for the old records.

Here is the complete list:
Pop Hates The Beatles (Pop Goes The Weasel) (Allan Sherman, Vic Damone & Dean Martin), That's A Mormon (That's Amore) (Martin), Brenda Lee (Tenderly) (Damone), God Bless You Gerry Mendlebaum (God Bless You Merry Gentlemen) (Sherman), Bela Lugosi (Besame Mucho) (Dean Martin), Aura Lee (Damone), Hello Young Lovers (Sherman), Day In Day Out (all three), You're Getting to Be A Rabbit With Me (You're Getting to Be A Habit With Me) (Damone), Goldman's Earrings (Golden Earrings) (Sherman), Wonton Soup (Wanting You) (Sherman), Egg Foo Young (They Tried To Tell Us We're Too Young) (Damone), Chow Mein (Charmaine) (Martin), Love Is Where You Find It (Sherman), Old Lang's Sign (Auld Lang Syne) (Damone), Comin' Thru the Rye (Comin' Thro the Rye) (Martin), Don't Buy The Liverwurst (Down By The Riverside) (all three)

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.




#Throwback Thursday    #TBT

Evolution of a Song: From Second Hand Rose (Brice) to Second Hand Rose (Streisand) to Second Hand Nose (Sherman)

In doing research for our upcoming lectures on The Great Jewish Comedians and The Great Jewish Entertainers, we sometimes find interesting and funny variations on popular and classic comedy routines, jokes, and songs. 
 
The song Second Hand Rose, which most people associate with its performance by Barbra Streisand in the 1968 movie Funny Girl, was first performed by comedian Fanny Brice (Fanny Borach) in the 1921 Ziegfeld Follies.

In playing both versions of the song, we noted one difference. In the original Brice version, there's a line that goes "Even Jakie Cohen he's the man I adore, He had the nerve to tell me he's been married before". But the Streisand version changes Jakie Cohen to Jake the Plumber. Why? Was it to make the character more universal in a nationally distributed movie? We can only guess. The song became fodder for Allan Sherman, who recorded so many parodies of popular songs, and turned it into Second Hand Nose.

Here are all three versions. Enjoy!

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Another Long-Lost Song Parody by Allan Sherman - "When You Walk Through the Bronx"

Three years ago we reported on the discovery of a long-lost collection of parody songs by Allan Sherman, but we only posted a few of them.

We think it's about time to share some more of these songs. They are clever, corny, but funny nevertheless. They made us chuckle and we hope that you'll enjoy them too.

Like any parody songs, they are funnier if you are familiar with the original song on which the parody is based. To Sherman, nothing was sacred, even the serious songs in Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals.

One of the show stoppers in Carousel was the song You'll Never Walk Alone. Sherman's comedic genius relocated the song to the Bronx, a borough of New York that is often the butt of jokes. In this parody, Sherman puts new words to the melody to guide a friend to his home in the Bronx.

Just in case you've forgotten the original, scroll down to find a version from a 1994 revival of the classic Broadway musical.

Enjoy!

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Comedy Flashback: Allan Sherman and Herman's Hermits Parody "Hello Muddah Hello Faddah"

Back in 1965 there was a musical variety show on TV called Fanfare. 

In one of the episodes, master song parodist Allan Sherman got together with Peter Noone, the lead singer of Herman's Hermits to create song parodies in real time.

First Sherman wrote an American version of the British pop song Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter. 

Then after Sherman sang a new version of his hit Hello Muddah Hello Faddah, the two singers collaborated in creating a British version of the classic funny song about summer camp.

Enjoy!

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Elli The King of Broadway Sings Allan Sherman's "I'm in the Mood for Love, You're in the Mood for Herring"

Two years ago we shared a few blog posts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the release of Allan Sherman's parody hit Hello Muddah Hello Faddah.

Last year we posted a few video clips of a new collection of long-lost Sherman parodies.

Sherman composed so many parodies of pop songs of the 1960s that they are being revived by a new generation of singer-comedians.

In February Elli, The King of Broadway was asked to sing a Sherman song as a part of the Metropolitan Room Special Event "A Tribute to Love".

Elli has made a name for himself in show business as an actor, singer, comedian, and voice over artist. In this video clip, Elli sings Allan Sherman's hit "When I'm in the Mood for Love, You're in the Mood for Herring.

Enjoy!

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Allan Sherman's Lost Song Parodies Surface After 50 Years

Last year, when Mark Cohen published a biography of folksinger-parodist Allan Sherman, we wrote about his book, Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman, and shared three of Sherman's lost songs that Cohen discovered while doing research for the book.

Cohen located the rare parodies with the cooperation of the Sherman estate and friends of Sherman.

Now, more than 50 years after they were recorded in concert and in the living rooms of friends, thirteen of these lost gems are being released in CD and MP3 formats on February 18. They are available now for pre-order on Amazon.com.

There Is Nothing Like A Lox: The Lost Song Parodies of Allan Sherman features the Jewish parodies of hits from Broadway musicals that Allan Sherman sang for Harpo Marx, Jack Benny and others at Harpo's home in Los Angeles in 1961 and that in 1962 landed him a contract with Warner Brothers Records. The album includes liner notes by Cohen.

The Amazon page for the album has 30 second snippets of all the songs. They're only a little taste, but you can get the general idea of most of the songs from the page.

Virtually all of the songs on the new CD comprise what Sherman called "The Goldeneh Moments From Broadway." Sherman explained, "It occurred to me, what if all of the great hit songs from all of the great Broadway shows had actually been written by Jewish people---which they were."

Sherman's insight led him to comically reclaim the American musical as a Jewish creation through parodies that judaized the material. "There Is Nothing Like A Dame" became "There Is Nothing Like A Lox," "Camelot" became "Ollawood" and "When You Walk Through A Storm" became "When You Walk Through the Bronx."

Here is a video (actually an audio with pictures) of Sherman's version of Cole Porter's You're the Top, from the 1934 Broadway musical Anything Goes, followed by a video-audio of the original sung by Porter himself.

Enjoy!

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Jewish Parody Gets a Boost as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Proclaims Allan Sherman Day

Jewish parody got a big boost on August 28 when Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a formal proclamation designating August 31 as Allan Sherman Day.

Over the last few years we've been posting some of Sherman's clever parodies of songs that were popular in the 1960s, especially since Mark Cohen wrote the definitive biography of the pudgy parodist, Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman.

The proclamation cited Sherman's connections to Chicago (he was born and raised there), but focused mainly on the 50th anniversary of the release of his most popular song, Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah, a hilarious takeoff on letters written by children in summer camp.

We're glad to see Sherman get so much recognition because we think his parodies were inspired and we miss his brand of humor. He had a knack of getting to the core of Jewish life in America in the 1950s and 1960s, when Jews were trying hard to assimilate and upward mobility was the name of the game.

Emanuel's proclamation gives us a good excuse to share two of our Allan Sherman favorites, Harvey and Sheila (a takeoff on Hava Nagila) and Sarah Jackman (a takeoff on Frere Jacques). Because Sherman's shtick preceded the age of music videos, the YouTube versions are mostly audio with still photos or plain text.

There are many versions, but for Harvey and Sheila we chose the one that has translations of the many acronyms in the song, which might not be understood by post-baby boomers, Generation X and Y, and Millennials.

Enjoy!

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(A tip of the kippah to Mark Cohen and Yonina Rosenbluth for bringing this news item to our attention.)

Shticks and Stones - Eleven Song Parodies from the Hilarious World of Allan Sherman

We've been paying a lot of attention to Allan Sherman this summer because it's the 50th anniversary of the release of Hello Mudddah, Hello Faddah, his classic funny tribute to the agonies and joys of summer camp.

Today we're posting Shticks and Stones from Sherman's record My Son, The Folksinger (1962). It's hard to believe this album is 50 years old.. The references are so outdated, yet somehow still so hilariously clever.

It's a collection of eleven partial songs that could have been a whole new album, but instead, Sherman combined them into a five minute long medley. In his prime, Sherman was bursting with puns and ideas for song parodies. In his world view, Jews tended to be in the garment business, manufacturing, retailing, or sales, either as owners or workers, and his songs reflect the seasonal nature of those businesses.

His timing was impeccable, and his delivery was always timed to make a direct hit on the funnybone.

This medley includes two of our favorites, I Gave My Love a Cherry, a takeoff on The Riddle Song, one of the oldest English folksongs, and I'm Melvin Rose of Texas, a takeoff on The Yellow Rose of Texas. Here are some of the lyrics:

I gave my love a chicken; it had no bone.  
I gave my love a cherry; it had no stone. 
I gave my love a baby, and then you see, my love got very angry and she said to me:
I didn't mind the chicken without the bone.
I didn't mind the cherry without the stone.
But when you give a baby there's just one thing...
You ought to give at least an engagement ring.

Oh I'm Melvin Rose of Texas, and my friends all call me Tex.
When I lived in old New Mexico, they used to call me Mex.
When I lived in old Kentucky, they called me old Kentuck.
I was born in old Shamokin, which is why they called me Melvin Rose.

Thanks to Jerry Funk for posting this gem on YouTube.

Enjoy!

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Oldie But Goodie: Allan Sherman's Mystery Guest Appearance on What's My Line?

This year we've been giving a lot of attention to Allan Sherman, whose Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah parody of life in sleepaway camp was released 50 years ago. We've posted a few rare unreleased recordings collected by Mark Cohen, who just published Overweight Sensation, his biography of the singer and parodist.

We're not finished with the unreleased recordings -- there are still a few waiting in the wings -- but today we thought you'd like to see an episode of What's My Line?, the long-running TV panel game show, the day that Allan Sherman was the mystery guest. This was made possible because a YouTube member known only as romeman01 posted 121 What's My Line? episodes last week, for which we thank him.

Sherman was the mystery guest on the March 15, 1964, episode of the popular panel program, hosted by John Daly, than ran for 17 years (1950-1967) on CBS. The panelists who try to guess his identity are Dorothy Kilgallen, Steve Lawrence, Arlene Francis, and Robert Q. Lewis. The voice that Sherman parodies for most of the appearance was that adopted by Frankie Fontaine, himself a noted comedian who worked in radio with Jack Benny and in television with Jackie Gleason. In the end, even though Sherman uses his own voice in order to give himself away, he still manages to create a warm, delightful moment as a befuddled panel gains a sudden moment of clarity. 

Besides the fun of Sherman's appearance, the episode is a rare look back at what television was like in the 1950s and 1960s. We were surprised to see the low stakes as every wrong guess added $5 (yes, five dollars) to the amount the guest received. Also, we wonder if the parting kiss on the cheek given to the female panelists (they all shook hands) would fly today.

Enjoy!

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