Allan Sherman - My Son, the Greatest: The Best of Allan Sherman

This collection gathers 19 of Sherman's humorous story-songs. The comic uses original lyrics and pre-existing tunes to poke fun at television shows and consumer items, to send-up the kids and generally riff on early and mid-'60s American pop culture. On tracks like "Pop Hates the Beatles" and "Crazy Downtown," his subject is the generation gap. "Al 'n Yetta" portrays a TV-dependent couple while "Lotsa Luck" describes the complicated hassles of dealing with faulty TVs and new-fangled tape recorders. Sherman assumed his audience had a little knowledge of history, too. On "Good Advice" and "You Went the Wrong Way, Old King Louie," he sings about inventors and French history, respectively. It's hard to imagine contemporary comedians working the historical beat. "One Hippopatami" is a delightfully goofy festival of wordplay that requires only a love of language and a tolerance for schmaltz. --Fred Cisterna Amazon.com

great memories

great collection of tunes, would like to see a performance of him sometime. well worth the money! October 15, 2008

A Creative Life Cut Way Too Short

Allan Sherman, born Allan Copelon on November 30, 1924 in Chicago, began his career in show business as a comedy writer for the likes of Jackie Gleason and Joe E. Lewis before becoming a creator/producer for the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions TV show, I've Got a Secret, which ran from 1952 to 1958. It was also in this period that he recorded a parody of the hit tune A Bushel And A Peck from Guys and Dolls which he called A Satchel And A Seck b/w Jake's Song. It didn't register on any charts at the time, but it was a sign of things to come. In 1954 he even tried his hand at a game show with What's Going On? on CBS, involving such as Jayne Meadows, Kitty Carlisle and Gene Raymond, but it only lasted a few months that summer.

A disastrous episode of I've Got A Secret that involved Tony Curtis, and which aired on June 11, 1958, led to his firing, after which, with assistance from George Burns who convinced Warner to record him, he turned his attention to his unique tunes which parodied everything from Frère Jacques (Sarah Jackman - how's by you?) to Hava Nagila (Harvey And Sheila) to Otis Elevators, Waterman Pens, Ford Motors the Wright Brothers, and the wheel - among others - (Good Advice). All hilarious and all brilliant. His first three albums, My Son, The Folk Singer, My Son, The Celebrity, and My Son, The Nut, all went to # 1.

He also registered five hit singles led, of course, by his first, the smash summer 1963 Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh (A Letter From Camp) which, adapted from Ponchielli's Dance Of The Hours, went to # 2 Billboard Pop Hot 100 with the backing of the Lou Busch orchestra. Released on Warner 5376, it had two B-side during distribution - Here's To The Crabgrass and Rat Fink, neither of which are here unfortunately/. Then, in time for the holiday season that year, Warner 5406 released The Twelve Gifts Of Christmas based upon the traditional Twelve Days Of Christmas and it made it to # 5 on the Billboard Christmas charts b/w the screamingly funny You Went The Wrong Way, Old King Louis, sung to the tune of You Came A Long Way From St. Louis.

In the summer of 1964 he had a new updated version of Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh, which he recorded live on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show on May 27, 1964, reach # 9 Adult Contemporary (AC) and # 59 Hot 100 on Warner 5449 b/w the original 1963 version (the A-side is omitted here). The following spring he did a take-off on the Petula Clark hit, Downtown, which, as Crazy Downtown, made it to # 6 AC and # 40 Hot 100 on Warner 5614 b/w The Drop-Outs March. That flip is also left out here, as are both sides of his last hit single, The Drinking Man's Diet. With the backing of The James Joyce Singers, it reached # 21 AC and # 98 Hot 100 in December 1965 on Warner 5672 b/w The Laarge Daark Aardvark Song.

Allan, who led a troubled youth, tragically died nine days before his 49th birthday on November 21, 1973.

You will love not only this generous 19-track album from Rhino, but also the seven pages of interesting liner notes written by Steve Allen, culled from his 1982 book More Funny People, in which he also recommends Sherman's autobiography, A Gift Of Laughter. Sprinkled throughout are album cover reproductions and photos of Allan, as well as a re-listing of the tracks showing the names of the original albums in which they first appeared. A pure delight. October 14, 2008

Nice disk, but for a better deal get everything

This disc for it's time was worth the price since Warner was sitting on their hands giving up the right to Allan Sherman's original albums to be released on CD. However, now that Rhino (the manufacturer of this disc) has acquired those rights and released his original 6 albums as CDs in "My Son, The Box" along with MANY previously unreleased tracks, this disc becomes window dressing as all these songs are on 1 or more of those 6 discs. I bought that set here, and have since given my copy of this disc away to a friend to sample the great Allan's work. My advice, buy that set and the CD of Peter and the Commissar (another classic Allan Sherman LP of yesteryear), and you will have enough of the great one to last a lifetime. Allan be praised :-) May 24, 2008

You'll laugh your kishkes out

I bought my first Allan Sherman record "My Son, the Folk Singer" in early 1964, passing up the opportunity to buy "She Loves You." While that may have been a bad choice for appreciating value (I'm sure that my brother's record is worth more), for pure entertainment, the Beatles take a back seat to Allan Sherman.

This record has most of his classics, but it is missing my personal favorite, "The Ballad of Harry Lewis." The line about finding him between roasted dacron and french-fried gabardine is priceless. So are Sherman's songs. February 6, 2008

F-U-N-N-Y

Funny songs we thought we'd never find again. We could recall only some words, and now we have them all! A very welcomed Xmas gift! Speedy delivery. January 7, 2008

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