Allan Sherman
Encyclopedia
Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist
in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer
(1962), became the fastest-selling record album up to that time. His biggest hit single was "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
", a comic novelty in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli
's Dance of the Hours
.
used Sherman's idea and turned it into I've Got a Secret
, which ran on CBS
from 1952 to 1967. Rather than paying him for the concept, Mark Goodson-Bill Todman
Productions made Sherman the show's producer. Sherman was reported to be warm and kindhearted to all who worked for him. But sparks often flew between Sherman and anyone who was in a position to try to restrain his creativity. As producer of I've Got a Secret, which was broadcast live, he showed a fondness for large scale stunts that had the potential to teeter on the brink of disaster. He once released 100 rabbits onstage as an Easter surprise for the Madison Square Boys Club, whose members were seated in the studio. The boys were invited to come up onstage to collect their prize. Although the resultant melee made a good story, it did not necessarily make for good TV. The relationship between Mark Goodson-Bill Todman and Sherman became strained to the breaking point when he finally fought to execute an idea that was destined to fall flat. His plan was to have Tony Curtis
teach the panel how to play some of the games he had played as a child growing up in New York City. The problems manifested themselves when it became obvious that Tony Curtis had never actually played any of the games that Sherman had brought the props for. The situation might have been salvaged had the props worked as planned, but they did not. The handkerchief parachute failed to open and land gracefully and the spool "tank" which was propelled by rubber band moved painfully slowly. The spot, which aired June 11, 1958, was a disaster and Sherman was fired as producer. His dismissal did not, however, prevent Mark Goodson-Bill Todman from bringing Sherman back many times as a guest on their shows in subsequent years after he achieved celebrity status following the release of his albums.
Sherman also produced a short-lived 1954 game show, What's Going On?
which was technologically ambitious, with studio guests interacting with multiple live cameras in remote locations. In 1961 he produced a daytime game show for Al Singer Productions called Your Surprise Package which aired on CBS with host George Fenneman
.
section of West Los Angeles next door to Harpo Marx
, who invited him to perform his song parodies at parties attended by Marx's show-biz friends. After one party, George Burns
phoned a record executive and persuaded him to sign Sherman to a contract. The result was a long playing album of these parodies, entitled My Son, the Folk Singer, which was released in 1962. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
. The album was so successful that it was quickly followed by My Son, the Celebrity
, which ended with "Shticks of One and Half a Dozen of the Other," fragments of song parodies including Robert Burns
': "Do not make a stingy sandwich
, pile the cold cuts high;/Customers should see salami
comin' thru the rye
" and "All day, all night Cary Grant
", a takeoff on "Marianne
".
In 1962, capitalizing on his success, Jubilee Records
re-released Sherman's 1951 single on the album More Folk Songs by Allan Sherman and His Friends, which was a compilation of material by various Borscht Belt
comedians, such as Sylvia Froos, Fyvush Finkle and Lee Tully, along with the Sherman material.
As suggested by the albums' titles, Sherman's first two LPs were mainly reworkings of old folk songs to infuse them with Jewish humor. His first minor hit was "Sarah Jackman" , a takeoff of "Frère Jacques
" in which he and a woman (Christine Nelson) exchange family gossip ("Sarah Jackman, Sarah Jackman, How's by you? How's by you? How's by you the family? How's your sister Emily?" etc.) The popularity of "Sarah Jackman" (as well as the album My Son, the Folk Singer) was enhanced after President John F. Kennedy
was spotted in a hotel lobby singing the song. By his peak with My Son, the Nut in 1963, however, Sherman had broadened both his subject matter and his choice of parody
material and begun to appeal to a larger audience.
Sherman wrote his parody lyrics in collaboration with Lou Busch
. A few of the Sherman/Busch songs are completely original creations, featuring original music as well as lyrics, rather than new lyrics applied to an existing melody. The Sherman/Busch originals – notably "Go to Sleep, Paul Revere" and "Peyton Place" – are novelty songs, showing genuine melodic originality as well as deft lyrics.
However, Sherman had trouble in getting permission to record for profit from some of the well-known composers and lyricists, who did not tolerate parodies or satires of their melodies and lyrics, including Irving Berlin
, Richard Rodgers
, George
and Ira Gershwin
, Alan Jay Lerner
, and Frederick Loewe, as well as the estates of Lorenz Hart
, Oscar Hammerstein
, Kurt Weill
, and Bertolt Brecht
, which prevented him from releasing parodies or satires of their songs. In the early 1960s, Sherman and Busch wrote a musical called "Fairfax Lady", a parody of My Fair Lady
, without Alan Jay Lerner's approval. However, Lerner and Sherman agreed to a settlement, which permitted "Fairfax Lady" to be performed under strict conditions: it could only play at one theater in the Fairfax district
of Los Angeles, no photos or visual record of the show be made, and no cast album could be recorded. The musical received mixed reviews. A previously unreleased recording of "Fairfax Lady", featuring Sherman's narration and Lou Busch at the piano, was included in the boxed set My Son, the Box.
Although Sherman believed that all the songs parodied on My Son, the Folk Singer were in the public domain, two of them, "Matilda" and "Water Boy" – parodied as "My Zelda" and "Seltzer Boy", respectively – were actually under copyright, and Sherman was sued for copyright infringement.
In 1963's My Son, The Nut, Sherman's pointed parodies of classical and popular tunes dealt with automation
in the workplace ("Automation," to the tune of "Fascination"), space travel
("Eight Foot Two, Solid Blue," to "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue"), the exodus from the city to the suburbs ("Here's to the Crabgrass," to the tune of "English Country Garden"), and his own bloated figure ("Hail to Thee, Fat Person," which claims his obesity
was a public service similar to the Marshall Plan
).
entitled "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
", became a surprise novelty hit, reaching No.2 on the national Billboard Hot 100
chart for three weeks in late summer 1963. The lyrics were sung to the tune of one segment of Ponchielli
's "Dance of the Hours
", familiar to the public because of its use in the Walt Disney
film Fantasia
. That December, Sherman's "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas" single appeared on Billboard's separate Christmas chart. Sherman had one other Top 40 hit, a 1965 take-off on the Petula Clark
hit "Downtown
" called "Crazy Downtown", which spent one week at #40. Two other Sherman singles charted in the lower regions of the Billboard 100: an updated "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh" (#59 in 1964), and "The Drinking Man's Diet" (#98 in 1965). He "Bubbled Under" with "The End Of A Symphony", reaching No.113 in 1964, spotlighting Arthur Fiedler's
Boston Pops Orchestra
.
The songs on Sherman's next album My Name Is Allan (1965) were thematically connected: except for a couple of original novelty songs with music by Sherman and Busch, all the songs on the album are parodies of songs that had won, or were nominated for, the Academy Award
for Best Song. They included "That Old Black Magic," "Secret Love," "The Continental,""Chim Chim Cheree", and "Call Me Irresponsible." The cover of the album bore a childhood photograph of Sherman. That, and the album's title, were references to Barbra Streisand
's album My Name is Barbra, released earlier that year, which featured a cover photograph of the singer as a young girl.
During his brief heyday, Sherman's parodies were so popular that he had at least one contemporary imitator: My Son the Copycat was an album of song parodies performed by Stanley Ralph Ross
, co-written by Ross and Bob Arbogast
. Lest there be any doubt of whom Ross is copying, his album's cover bears a crossed-out photo of Sherman. One of the songs on this album is a fat man's lament, "I'm Called Little Butterball", parodying "I'm Called Little Buttercup" from Gilbert and Sullivan
's operetta
HMS Pinafore
. Sherman would later parody this same song as "Little Butterball" – with the same subject matter – on his album Allan in Wonderland
. The song may have had more poignancy for Sherman, as he, unlike Stanley Ross, was genuinely overweight. Sherman also parodied Gilbert and Sullivan's "Titwillow" from The Mikado
, in the song "The Bronx Bird-Watcher" (on My Son, the Celebrity), as well as several other Gilbert and Sullivan songs
.
, was involved in the production of Bill Cosby's
first three albums, appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
, and sang "The Dropouts' March" on the March 6, 1964, edition of the NBC-TV satirical program That Was The Week That Was
.
Also in 1964, Sherman narrated his own version of Prokofiev
's Peter and the Wolf
in a live concert at Tanglewood
with the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler
. The concert, which was released as the album Peter and the Commissar, also included "Variations on 'How Dry I Am'", with Sherman as conductor, and "The End of a Symphony". In "Variations", Fiedler was the guest soloist, providing solo hiccups. In 2004, Collector's Choice reissued the complete RCA Victor album on CD.
Sherman's later albums grew more pointedly satirical and less light-hearted, skewering protesting students ("The Rebel"), consumer debt ("A Waste of Money", based on "A Taste of Honey
"), and the generation gap
("Crazy Downtown" and "Pop Hates the Beatles
").
Sherman was often tapped to produce specialty song parodies for corporations. An album of six paper-cup and vending machine related songs, titled Music to Dispense With, was created for the Container Division of the Scott Paper Company
for distribution to its vendors and customers. It consisted of the tracks Makin' Coffee, Vending Machines, There Are Cups, That's How The Change Is Made, The Wonderful Tree In The Forest and Scott Cups.
Sherman also created a group of eight "public education" radio spots for Encron carpet fibers, singing their praises to the tunes of old public-domain songs. Entitled Allan Sherman Pours It On For Carpets Made With Encron Polyester, it featured an introduction by Sherman and comprised the tracks
"Encron Is A Brand New Fiber" (to the tune of "Shine On, Harvest Moon
"), "Put Them All Together, They Spell Encron" (to the tune of Eddy Arnold
's "M-O-T-H-E-R"), "There's A Fiber Called Encron" (to the tune of William H. Hill's "There is a Tavern in the Town"), "Encron Alive, Alive-O" (to the tune of "Molly Malone
"), "Encron's The Name", "Why They Call It Encron" (to the tune of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart
"), "Encron, Encron" (to the tune of "Daisy Bell
") and "Encron Is A Great New Fiber" (to the tune of "Take Me to the Fair").
vowed to never again do a Kennedy impression, and perhaps because of this ominous shadow – Meader was a very popular parody impressionist of the day – and the resulting reluctance to book such acts, the public saw less of Sherman's type of comedy. By 1965, Sherman had released two albums that did not make the Top 50 and in 1966, Warner Brothers dropped him from the label. His last album for the company, Togetherness, was released in 1967 to poor reviews and poorer sales. All of Sherman's previous releases had been recorded in front of a live studio audience – or in the case of Live, Hoping You Are The Same, recorded during a Las Vegas performance – but Togetherness was not, and the lack of an audience and their response affected the result, as did the nondescript backup singers and studio orchestra.
In 1969, Sherman wrote the script and lyrics – but not the music, which was written by Albert Hague
– for The Fig Leaves Are Falling
, a flop Broadway musical that lasted only four performances in 1969, despite direction by George Abbott
and a cast that included Barry Nelson
, Dorothy Loudon
and David Cassidy
. Still creative, in 1973 Sherman published the controversial The Rape of the A*P*E*, which detailed his point of view on American Puritanism
and the sexual revolution
.
In 1971, Sherman was the voice of Dr. Seuss
's "The Cat in the Hat
" for the television special
. He also did voice work for Dr. Seuss on the Loose
, his last project before his death.
Sherman lived on unemployment benefits for a time and moved into the Motion Picture Home near Calabasas, California
for a short time in order to lose weight. He died of emphysema
at home in West Hollywood ten days before his 49th birthday. He is entombed in Culver City, California
's Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
.
, who pays homage to Sherman on the cover of his first LP. Sherman's hit song, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" has been translated into other languages. In one notable example, the Dutch-Swedish poet Cornelis Vreeswijk
translated the song loosely into Swedish as "Brev från kolonien" (Letter from the colonies), which reached fourth on the Swedish popular music chart Svensktoppen in the summer of 1965 and is still popular in Sweden today.
A Best of Allan Sherman CD was released in 1990, and a boxed set of most of his songs was released in 2005 under the title My Son, the Box. In 1992 a musical revue of his songs titled Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
ran for over a year off-off-Broadway; other productions ran Off-Broadway
for four months in 2001 and toured in 2003. A children's book based on the song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!, with illustrations by Syd Hoff
, was published in 2004.
On March 14, 2006, National Public Radio profiled Sherman on All Things Considered.
In 2010, eight of Allan Sherman's Warner Brothers albums were individually released on CD:
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer
My Son, the Folk Singer
My Son, the Folk Singer is an album by Allan Sherman [monophonic W-1475/stereophonic WS-1475], released by Warner Bros. Records in 1962. On the album sleeve, the title appears directly below the words "Allan Sherman's mother presents."- Side One :...
(1962), became the fastest-selling record album up to that time. His biggest hit single was "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah! is the name of both a musical review and a children's book based on a similarly named Allan Sherman song that received the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Performance.-Hello Muddah, Hello Fuddah! :...
", a comic novelty in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's Dance of the Hours
Dance of the Hours
Dance of the Hours is a short ballet from Act 3, Scene 2 of the opera La Gioconda composed by Amilcare Ponchielli. It depicts the hours of the day through solo and ensemble dances. The opera was first performed in 1876 and was revised in 1880...
.
TV writer and producer
Sherman created a game show, which he called "I Know a Secret." TV producer Mark GoodsonMark Goodson
Mark Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows.-Life and early career:...
used Sherman's idea and turned it into I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?...
, which ran on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from 1952 to 1967. Rather than paying him for the concept, Mark Goodson-Bill Todman
Bill Todman
William S. "Bill" Todman was an American television producer born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest running shows with business partner Mark Goodson.-Early life:...
Productions made Sherman the show's producer. Sherman was reported to be warm and kindhearted to all who worked for him. But sparks often flew between Sherman and anyone who was in a position to try to restrain his creativity. As producer of I've Got a Secret, which was broadcast live, he showed a fondness for large scale stunts that had the potential to teeter on the brink of disaster. He once released 100 rabbits onstage as an Easter surprise for the Madison Square Boys Club, whose members were seated in the studio. The boys were invited to come up onstage to collect their prize. Although the resultant melee made a good story, it did not necessarily make for good TV. The relationship between Mark Goodson-Bill Todman and Sherman became strained to the breaking point when he finally fought to execute an idea that was destined to fall flat. His plan was to have Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
teach the panel how to play some of the games he had played as a child growing up in New York City. The problems manifested themselves when it became obvious that Tony Curtis had never actually played any of the games that Sherman had brought the props for. The situation might have been salvaged had the props worked as planned, but they did not. The handkerchief parachute failed to open and land gracefully and the spool "tank" which was propelled by rubber band moved painfully slowly. The spot, which aired June 11, 1958, was a disaster and Sherman was fired as producer. His dismissal did not, however, prevent Mark Goodson-Bill Todman from bringing Sherman back many times as a guest on their shows in subsequent years after he achieved celebrity status following the release of his albums.
Sherman also produced a short-lived 1954 game show, What's Going On?
What's Going On?
What's Going On? was a short-lived television game show that aired for five weeks beginning on November 28, 1954. The show aired on ABC and was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production. It was sponsored by Revlon, and originated live from New York City....
which was technologically ambitious, with studio guests interacting with multiple live cameras in remote locations. In 1961 he produced a daytime game show for Al Singer Productions called Your Surprise Package which aired on CBS with host George Fenneman
George Fenneman
George Watt Fenneman was an American radio and television announcer.Fenneman was born in Beijing, China, the only child of American parents in the import-export business. He was nine months old when his parents moved to San Francisco, California, United States, where he grew up...
.
Song parodies
In 1951 Sherman recorded a 78-rpm single with veteran singer Sylvia Froos which included the songs "A Satchel and a Seck", parodying "A Bushel and a Peck" from Guys and Dolls, and "Jake's Song". The single sold poorly and when Sherman wrote his autobiography, he did not make reference to it. Later, he found that the song parodies he performed to amuse his friends and family were taking on a life of their own. Sherman lived in the BrentwoodBrentwood, Los Angeles, California
Brentwood is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. The district is located at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, the Santa Monica city limits on the southwest, the border of Topanga State...
section of West Los Angeles next door to Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
, who invited him to perform his song parodies at parties attended by Marx's show-biz friends. After one party, George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
phoned a record executive and persuaded him to sign Sherman to a contract. The result was a long playing album of these parodies, entitled My Son, the Folk Singer, which was released in 1962. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. The album was so successful that it was quickly followed by My Son, the Celebrity
My Son, the Celebrity
My Son, the Celebrity is a musical comedy album by Allan Sherman, released in the United States by Warner Bros. in January 1963.The album was the second of three straight albums by Sherman to reach #1 on the Billboard album charts. It reached #1 on Billboard's Top 150 Best Selling LPs chart for...
, which ended with "Shticks of One and Half a Dozen of the Other," fragments of song parodies including Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
': "Do not make a stingy sandwich
Sandwich
A sandwich is a food item, typically consisting of two or more slices of :bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of lunch food, typically taken to work or school, or...
, pile the cold cuts high;/Customers should see salami
Salami
Salami is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat, originating from one of a variety of animals. Historically, salami has been popular among Southern European peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for periods of up to 10 years, supplementing a possibly meager or inconsistent...
comin' thru the rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
" and "All day, all night Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
", a takeoff on "Marianne
Marianne (Terry Gilkyson song)
-History:"Mary Ann," composed by calypsonian Roaring Lion , was popular with steelbands and revelers during a spontaneous Carnival celebration on V-J Day in Trinidad in 1945, at the end of World War II. The song's lyrics alluded to Mary Ann's occupation:-Recordings:Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat...
".
In 1962, capitalizing on his success, Jubilee Records
Jubilee Records
Jubilee Records was a record label specializing in rhythm and blues along with novelty records. It was founded in New York City in 1946 by Herb Abramson. Jerry Blaine became Abramson's partner. Blaine bought out Abramson's half of the company in 1947. The company name was Jay-Gee Recording...
re-released Sherman's 1951 single on the album More Folk Songs by Allan Sherman and His Friends, which was a compilation of material by various Borscht Belt
Borscht Belt
Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange and Ulster counties in upstate New York that were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews from the 1920s through the 1960s.-Name:The name comes from...
comedians, such as Sylvia Froos, Fyvush Finkle and Lee Tully, along with the Sherman material.
As suggested by the albums' titles, Sherman's first two LPs were mainly reworkings of old folk songs to infuse them with Jewish humor. His first minor hit was "Sarah Jackman" , a takeoff of "Frère Jacques
Frère Jacques
"Frère Jacques" , in English sometimes called "Brother John" or "Brother Peter", is a French nursery melody. The song is traditionally sung in a round. When the first singer reaches the end of the first line the next person starts at the beginning...
" in which he and a woman (Christine Nelson) exchange family gossip ("Sarah Jackman, Sarah Jackman, How's by you? How's by you? How's by you the family? How's your sister Emily?" etc.) The popularity of "Sarah Jackman" (as well as the album My Son, the Folk Singer) was enhanced after President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
was spotted in a hotel lobby singing the song. By his peak with My Son, the Nut in 1963, however, Sherman had broadened both his subject matter and his choice of parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
material and begun to appeal to a larger audience.
Sherman wrote his parody lyrics in collaboration with Lou Busch
Lou Busch
Louis Ferdinand Busch was a music producer, musician and songwriter who was best known for performing as a pianist under the nickname Joe "Fingers" Carr.-Biography:...
. A few of the Sherman/Busch songs are completely original creations, featuring original music as well as lyrics, rather than new lyrics applied to an existing melody. The Sherman/Busch originals – notably "Go to Sleep, Paul Revere" and "Peyton Place" – are novelty songs, showing genuine melodic originality as well as deft lyrics.
However, Sherman had trouble in getting permission to record for profit from some of the well-known composers and lyricists, who did not tolerate parodies or satires of their melodies and lyrics, including Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
, Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
, George
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
and Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
, Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
, and Frederick Loewe, as well as the estates of Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
, Oscar Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
, Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
, and Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
, which prevented him from releasing parodies or satires of their songs. In the early 1960s, Sherman and Busch wrote a musical called "Fairfax Lady", a parody of My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
, without Alan Jay Lerner's approval. However, Lerner and Sherman agreed to a settlement, which permitted "Fairfax Lady" to be performed under strict conditions: it could only play at one theater in the Fairfax district
Fairfax District
Fairfax District may refer to:*Fairfax District *Fairfax District...
of Los Angeles, no photos or visual record of the show be made, and no cast album could be recorded. The musical received mixed reviews. A previously unreleased recording of "Fairfax Lady", featuring Sherman's narration and Lou Busch at the piano, was included in the boxed set My Son, the Box.
Although Sherman believed that all the songs parodied on My Son, the Folk Singer were in the public domain, two of them, "Matilda" and "Water Boy" – parodied as "My Zelda" and "Seltzer Boy", respectively – were actually under copyright, and Sherman was sued for copyright infringement.
In 1963's My Son, The Nut, Sherman's pointed parodies of classical and popular tunes dealt with automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
in the workplace ("Automation," to the tune of "Fascination"), space travel
Spaceflight
Spaceflight is the act of travelling into or through outer space. Spaceflight can occur with spacecraft which may, or may not, have humans on board. Examples of human spaceflight include the Russian Soyuz program, the U.S. Space shuttle program, as well as the ongoing International Space Station...
("Eight Foot Two, Solid Blue," to "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue"), the exodus from the city to the suburbs ("Here's to the Crabgrass," to the tune of "English Country Garden"), and his own bloated figure ("Hail to Thee, Fat Person," which claims his obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
was a public service similar to the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
).
A Top 40 hit
One track from My Son, The Nut, a spoof of summer campSummer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
entitled "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
"Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh " is a Grammy Award-winning novelty song by Allan Sherman, based on letters of complaint he received from his son Robert while Robert attended Camp Champlain in Westport, New York. The song is a parody that complains about the fictional "Camp Granada" and is set to the...
", became a surprise novelty hit, reaching No.2 on the national Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart for three weeks in late summer 1963. The lyrics were sung to the tune of one segment of Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's "Dance of the Hours
Dance of the Hours
Dance of the Hours is a short ballet from Act 3, Scene 2 of the opera La Gioconda composed by Amilcare Ponchielli. It depicts the hours of the day through solo and ensemble dances. The opera was first performed in 1876 and was revised in 1880...
", familiar to the public because of its use in the Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
film Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
. That December, Sherman's "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas" single appeared on Billboard's separate Christmas chart. Sherman had one other Top 40 hit, a 1965 take-off on the Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
hit "Downtown
Downtown (Petula Clark song)
"Downtown" is a pop song composed by Tony Hatch which, as recorded by Petula Clark, became an international hit – No. 1 in the US and No. 2 in the UK – at the end of 1964.-Original recording:...
" called "Crazy Downtown", which spent one week at #40. Two other Sherman singles charted in the lower regions of the Billboard 100: an updated "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh" (#59 in 1964), and "The Drinking Man's Diet" (#98 in 1965). He "Bubbled Under" with "The End Of A Symphony", reaching No.113 in 1964, spotlighting Arthur Fiedler's
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
Boston Pops Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
.
The songs on Sherman's next album My Name Is Allan (1965) were thematically connected: except for a couple of original novelty songs with music by Sherman and Busch, all the songs on the album are parodies of songs that had won, or were nominated for, the Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Song. They included "That Old Black Magic," "Secret Love," "The Continental,""Chim Chim Cheree", and "Call Me Irresponsible." The cover of the album bore a childhood photograph of Sherman. That, and the album's title, were references to Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
's album My Name is Barbra, released earlier that year, which featured a cover photograph of the singer as a young girl.
During his brief heyday, Sherman's parodies were so popular that he had at least one contemporary imitator: My Son the Copycat was an album of song parodies performed by Stanley Ralph Ross
Stanley Ralph Ross
Stanley Ralph Ross was raised in Brooklyn New York, starting his career in advertising, then soon going to work as a writer and actor on various television shows, most notably cult-classics such as the 1960s Batman series starring Adam West and also The Monkees...
, co-written by Ross and Bob Arbogast
Bob Arbogast
Robert "Bob" Arbogast was an American radio broadcaster, voice actor, and television host.-Biography:...
. Lest there be any doubt of whom Ross is copying, his album's cover bears a crossed-out photo of Sherman. One of the songs on this album is a fat man's lament, "I'm Called Little Butterball", parodying "I'm Called Little Buttercup" from Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
HMS Pinafore
HMS Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
. Sherman would later parody this same song as "Little Butterball" – with the same subject matter – on his album Allan in Wonderland
Allan in Wonderland
Allan In Wonderland is an album by Allan Sherman, released by Warner Brothers Records.-Side One:# "Skin" # "Lotsa Luck"# "Green Stamps" # "Holiday For States"...
. The song may have had more poignancy for Sherman, as he, unlike Stanley Ross, was genuinely overweight. Sherman also parodied Gilbert and Sullivan's "Titwillow" from The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, in the song "The Bronx Bird-Watcher" (on My Son, the Celebrity), as well as several other Gilbert and Sullivan songs
Cultural influence of Gilbert and Sullivan
In the past 125 years, Gilbert and Sullivan have pervasively influenced popular culture in the English-speaking world. Lines and quotations from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas have become part of the English language, such as "short, sharp shock", "What never? Well, hardly ever!", "let the...
.
Later work
At the height of his popularity in 1965, Sherman published an autobiography, A Gift of Laughter, and, for a short period at least, Sherman was culturally ubiquitous. He sang on and guest-hosted The Tonight ShowThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
, was involved in the production of Bill Cosby's
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
first three albums, appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
, and sang "The Dropouts' March" on the March 6, 1964, edition of the NBC-TV satirical program That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, is a satirical television comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost...
.
Also in 1964, Sherman narrated his own version of Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf , Op. 67, is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children's story , spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra....
in a live concert at Tanglewood
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
with the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
. The concert, which was released as the album Peter and the Commissar, also included "Variations on 'How Dry I Am'", with Sherman as conductor, and "The End of a Symphony". In "Variations", Fiedler was the guest soloist, providing solo hiccups. In 2004, Collector's Choice reissued the complete RCA Victor album on CD.
Sherman's later albums grew more pointedly satirical and less light-hearted, skewering protesting students ("The Rebel"), consumer debt ("A Waste of Money", based on "A Taste of Honey
A Taste of Honey (song)
"A Taste of Honey" is a pop standard written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow. It was originally an instrumental track written for the 1960 Broadway version of the 1958 British play A Taste of Honey . Both the original and a cover by Herb Alpert in 1965 earned the song Grammy Awards...
"), and the generation gap
Generation gap
The generational gap is and was a term popularized in Western countries during the 1960s referring to differences between people of a younger generation and their elders, especially between children and parents....
("Crazy Downtown" and "Pop Hates the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
").
Sherman was often tapped to produce specialty song parodies for corporations. An album of six paper-cup and vending machine related songs, titled Music to Dispense With, was created for the Container Division of the Scott Paper Company
Scott Paper Company
The Scott Paper Company is a USA-based corporation which manufactures mostly paper based consumer products.Scott Paper was founded in 1879 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by brothers E. Irvin and Clarence Scott, and is often credited as being the first to market toilet paper sold on a roll...
for distribution to its vendors and customers. It consisted of the tracks Makin' Coffee, Vending Machines, There Are Cups, That's How The Change Is Made, The Wonderful Tree In The Forest and Scott Cups.
Sherman also created a group of eight "public education" radio spots for Encron carpet fibers, singing their praises to the tunes of old public-domain songs. Entitled Allan Sherman Pours It On For Carpets Made With Encron Polyester, it featured an introduction by Sherman and comprised the tracks
"Encron Is A Brand New Fiber" (to the tune of "Shine On, Harvest Moon
Shine On, Harvest Moon
"Shine On, Harvest Moon" is the name of a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 to great acclaim...
"), "Put Them All Together, They Spell Encron" (to the tune of Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold , known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more...
's "M-O-T-H-E-R"), "There's A Fiber Called Encron" (to the tune of William H. Hill's "There is a Tavern in the Town"), "Encron Alive, Alive-O" (to the tune of "Molly Malone
Molly Malone
"Molly Malone" is a popular song, set in Dublin, Ireland, which has become the unofficial anthem of Dublin City....
"), "Encron's The Name", "Why They Call It Encron" (to the tune of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
"Let Me Call You Sweetheart" is a popular song, with music by Leo Friedman and lyrics by Beth Slater Whitson. The song was published in 1910 and first recorded by The Peerless Quartet....
"), "Encron, Encron" (to the tune of "Daisy Bell
Daisy Bell
"Daisy Bell" is a popular song with the well-known chorus "Daisy, Daisy/Give me your answer do/I'm half crazy/all for the love of you" as well as the line "...a bicycle built for two".-History:"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892...
") and "Encron Is A Great New Fiber" (to the tune of "Take Me to the Fair").
Decline
Sherman's career success was short-lived: after peaking in 1963, his popularity declined rather quickly. After the JFK assassination, impersonator Vaughn MeaderVaughn Meader
Abbott Vaughn Meader was an American comedian and impersonator whose achievement of fame with The First Family album spoofing President John F...
vowed to never again do a Kennedy impression, and perhaps because of this ominous shadow – Meader was a very popular parody impressionist of the day – and the resulting reluctance to book such acts, the public saw less of Sherman's type of comedy. By 1965, Sherman had released two albums that did not make the Top 50 and in 1966, Warner Brothers dropped him from the label. His last album for the company, Togetherness, was released in 1967 to poor reviews and poorer sales. All of Sherman's previous releases had been recorded in front of a live studio audience – or in the case of Live, Hoping You Are The Same, recorded during a Las Vegas performance – but Togetherness was not, and the lack of an audience and their response affected the result, as did the nondescript backup singers and studio orchestra.
In 1969, Sherman wrote the script and lyrics – but not the music, which was written by Albert Hague
Albert Hague
Albert Hague was a German-born songwriter, composer, and actor.-Early life:Hague was born as Albert Marcuse to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. His father, Harry Marcuse, was a psychiatrist and a musical prodigy, and his mother, Mimi , a chess champion...
– for The Fig Leaves Are Falling
The Fig Leaves Are Falling
The Fig Leaves Are Falling is a musical with a book and lyrics by Allan Sherman and music by Albert Hague. It was inspired by Sherman's 1966 divorce following 21 years of marriage....
, a flop Broadway musical that lasted only four performances in 1969, despite direction by George Abbott
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...
and a cast that included Barry Nelson
Barry Nelson
Barry Nelson was an American actor, noted as the first actor to portray Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond.-Early life:...
, Dorothy Loudon
Dorothy Loudon
Dorothy Loudon was an American comedy actress and singer. She won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Miss Hannigan in Annie.-Early life and career:Loudon was born in...
and David Cassidy
David Cassidy
David Bruce Cassidy is an American actor, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his role as the character of Keith Partridge in the 1970s musical/sitcom The Partridge Family. He was one of pop culture's most celebrated teen idols, enjoying a successful pop career in the 1970s, and...
. Still creative, in 1973 Sherman published the controversial The Rape of the A*P*E*, which detailed his point of view on American Puritanism
Religious fanaticism
Religious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the...
and the sexual revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...
.
In 1971, Sherman was the voice of Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
's "The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss and perhaps the most famous, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. He also carries a pale blue umbrella...
" for the television special
The Cat in the Hat (TV special)
The Cat in the Hat is an animated musical television special first aired on CBS on March 10, 1971, based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss' children's book of the same name and produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
. He also did voice work for Dr. Seuss on the Loose
Dr. Seuss on the Loose
Dr. Seuss on the Loose is an animated musical television special, cartoon first airing on CBS on October 15, 1973, and hosted by The Cat in the Hat. who appears in bridging sequences where he introduced animated adaptations of Dr...
, his last project before his death.
Death
Late in his life, Sherman drank and ate heavily which resulted in a dangerous weight gain; he later developed diabetes and struggled with lung disease. In 1966, his wife Dee filed for divorce and received full custody of their son and daughter.Sherman lived on unemployment benefits for a time and moved into the Motion Picture Home near Calabasas, California
Calabasas, California
Calabasas is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California in the western United States. It is located in the hills in the southwestern San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains between Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills, West Hills, and Malibu, California. As of the 2010 census, the city...
for a short time in order to lose weight. He died of emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
at home in West Hollywood ten days before his 49th birthday. He is entombed in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
's Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
The Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary is a Jewish cemetery located at 6001 West Centinela Avenue, in Culver City, California, USA. Many Jewish people from the entertainment industry are buried here.-Notable interments:*Irving Aaronson, composer...
.
Legacy
Sherman was the inspiration for a new generation of developing parodists such as "Weird Al" Yankovic"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
, who pays homage to Sherman on the cover of his first LP. Sherman's hit song, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" has been translated into other languages. In one notable example, the Dutch-Swedish poet Cornelis Vreeswijk
Cornelis Vreeswijk
Cornelis Vreeswijk , was a singer-songwriter, poet and actor born in IJmuiden in the Netherlands.He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became increasingly involved in music, performing at...
translated the song loosely into Swedish as "Brev från kolonien" (Letter from the colonies), which reached fourth on the Swedish popular music chart Svensktoppen in the summer of 1965 and is still popular in Sweden today.
A Best of Allan Sherman CD was released in 1990, and a boxed set of most of his songs was released in 2005 under the title My Son, the Box. In 1992 a musical revue of his songs titled Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah! is the name of both a musical review and a children's book based on a similarly named Allan Sherman song that received the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Performance.-Hello Muddah, Hello Fuddah! :...
ran for over a year off-off-Broadway; other productions ran Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
for four months in 2001 and toured in 2003. A children's book based on the song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!, with illustrations by Syd Hoff
Syd Hoff
Syd Hoff was a Jewish-American cartoonist and children's book author. Although best known for his classic early reader Danny and the Dinosaur, his cartoons appeared in a multitude of genres, including advertising commissions for such companies as Eveready Batteries, Jell-O, S.O.S Pads, Rambler,...
, was published in 2004.
On March 14, 2006, National Public Radio profiled Sherman on All Things Considered.
In 2010, eight of Allan Sherman's Warner Brothers albums were individually released on CD:
- My Son, The Folk Singer
- My Son, The Celebrity
- My Son, The Nut
- Allan in Wonderland
- For Swingin' Livers Only
- My Name is Allan
- Live! (Hoping You Are The Same)
- Togetherness
In popular culture
- Sherman's song "Rat FinkRat FinkRat Fink is one of the several hot-rod characters created by one of the originators of Kustom Kulture, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Roth conceived Rat Fink as an anti-hero answer to Mickey Mouse...
" was covered by punk rock band The Misfits as "Ratt Fink", on their 1979 single "Night of the Living DeadNight of the Living DeadNight of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...
". It was also covered by Ex-Misfits guitarist Bobby SteeleBobby SteeleBobby Steele is an American punk rock musician. He is the current guitar player, songwriter, and sole original member of punk band The Undead. He has been a member of multiple other bands, most notably, as the second guitarist of The Misfits...
by his band The UndeadThe UndeadThe Undead is a horror punk band formed in 1980 in New Milford, New Jersey by Bobby Steele , Chris "Jack" Natz , and Patrick Blanck . Bobby had just been fired from his previous band, The Misfits, when forming The Undead.They released their first EP 9 Toes Later in 1982...
. Sherman wrote the song as a parody of "Rag Mop", originally performed by Johnnie Lee Wills and popularized by The Ames Brothers in 1950. - In the "Three Gays of the CondoThree Gays of the Condo"Three Gays of the Condo" is the seventeenth episode in the fourteenth season of The Simpsons and aired April 13, 2003.-Plot:Marge brings an "Oprah's Puzzle Club" jigsaw puzzle to the Simpson Family Wednesdays, for everyone to work on except for Grampa and Maggie, as the box clearly reads for ages...
" episode of The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, "Weird Al" Yankovic"Weird Al" YankovicAlfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
makes a guest appearance. When Homer asks Yankovic if he got the two songs he recorded and sent in, Yankovic replies that he did. When Homer asks which he liked better, Yankovic replies, "They were pretty much the same, Homer." Homer then mutters angrily, "Yeah, like you and Allan Sherman." Another reference to Sherman came in the episode "Marge Be Not ProudMarge Be Not Proud"Marge Be Not Proud" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 17, 1995. In the episode, Marge refuses to buy Bart the new video game Bonestorm, so he steals it from a local discount store...
" when Bart hid an answering machine tape in a copy of his Camp GranadaCamp GranadaCamp Granada is a 1965 children's board game by Milton Bradley Company based on Allan Sherman's popular 1963 novelty song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh. Campers take turns driving a breakdown-prone bus to gather ICKY animals from various summer camp locations to be the first to leave the real rotten...
album – "where no one would ever listen to it." - The group Capitol StepsCapitol StepsThe Capitol Steps are an American political satire group. It has been performing since 1981, and has released approximately thirty albums consisting primarily of song parodies. Originally consisting exclusively of Congressional staffers performing around Washington, D.C., the troupe now primarily...
used "Hello Mullah Hello Faddah" as a parody in Fools On The Hill (Songs of 1992).
Discography
- My Son, the Folk SingerMy Son, the Folk SingerMy Son, the Folk Singer is an album by Allan Sherman [monophonic W-1475/stereophonic WS-1475], released by Warner Bros. Records in 1962. On the album sleeve, the title appears directly below the words "Allan Sherman's mother presents."- Side One :...
(1962) - More Folk Songs by Allan Sherman and His Friends (1962) [pirated album]
- My Son, the CelebrityMy Son, the CelebrityMy Son, the Celebrity is a musical comedy album by Allan Sherman, released in the United States by Warner Bros. in January 1963.The album was the second of three straight albums by Sherman to reach #1 on the Billboard album charts. It reached #1 on Billboard's Top 150 Best Selling LPs chart for...
(1963) - My Son, the NutMy Son, the NutMy Son, the Nut is the third album by Allan Sherman, released by Warner Bros. Records in 1963. The album held the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 for nearly two months, from August 31 to October 25, 1963.-Side One:...
(1963) - Allan in WonderlandAllan in WonderlandAllan In Wonderland is an album by Allan Sherman, released by Warner Brothers Records.-Side One:# "Skin" # "Lotsa Luck"# "Green Stamps" # "Holiday For States"...
(1964) - Peter and the CommissarPeter and the CommissarPeter and the Commissar is a musical comedy album by Allan Sherman, with Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra with 5 guest jazz musicians.It was recorded live on July 22, 1964.Released by RCA Victor in 1964, as a Red Seal Dynagroove recording...
(1964) - For Swingin' Livers OnlyFor Swingin' Livers OnlyFor Swingin' Livers Only is an album by Allan Sherman, released by Warner Brothers Records in 1964.-Side one:# "Grow, Mrs. Goldfarb" # "Your Mother's Here to Stay" # "Pills"...
(1964) (a play on Sinatra's album title Songs for Swingin' LoversSongs for Swingin' LoversSongs for Swingin' Lovers! is the eighth studio album recorded by the American singer Frank Sinatra for Capitol Records, it was arranged by Nelson Riddle and released in March 1956....
) - My Name is Allan (1965) (a play on Streisand's album title My Name is Barbra)
- Live!! (Hoping You Are The Same) (1966)
- Togetherness (1967)
- Best of Allan Sherman (Posthumous, 1979)
- My Son, The Greatest (Posthumous, 1990)
- My Son, The Box (Posthumous, 2005)
Musical theatre
- The Fig Leaves Are Falling (1969) – musical – lyricist and book-writer
- Songs: "All Is Well in Larchmont," "Lillian," "All of My Laughter," "Give Me a Cause," "Today I Saw a Rose," "We," "For Our Sake," "Light One Candle," "Oh, Boy," "The Fig Leaves Are Falling," "For the Rest of My Life," "I Like It," "Broken Heart," "Old Fashioned Song," "Lillian, Lillian, Lillian," "Did I Ever Really Live?" The music was composed by Albert HagueAlbert HagueAlbert Hague was a German-born songwriter, composer, and actor.-Early life:Hague was born as Albert Marcuse to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. His father, Harry Marcuse, was a psychiatrist and a musical prodigy, and his mother, Mimi , a chess champion...
.
- Songs: "All Is Well in Larchmont," "Lillian," "All of My Laughter," "Give Me a Cause," "Today I Saw a Rose," "We," "For Our Sake," "Light One Candle," "Oh, Boy," "The Fig Leaves Are Falling," "For the Rest of My Life," "I Like It," "Broken Heart," "Old Fashioned Song," "Lillian, Lillian, Lillian," "Did I Ever Really Live?" The music was composed by Albert Hague
External links
- [ Allmusic Guide Entry for Allan Sherman]
- Allan Sherman: The Internet Site
- Complete Discography
- Allan Sherman discography
- Review of Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, the Allan Sherman Musical Revue
- Allan Sherman's Gravesite