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I think I'll have to find a friend with an LP --> CD converter. I have a 40 Year-old LP of the second album, "When You're in Love the Whole World is Jewish" which was played so many times in the 60s and 70s that I amazed it hasn't worn through. My family still uses catch phrases from it: "So let 'em die - it's only a 'obby" and "Bwana, Gung Ho." and "Butterfingers Irving gunned himself down" -- you get the idea.Every year or so I google to see if it's been released on CD.
It is great to share this piece of my past that I thought was lost with my kids. My family had this album when I was a child, we loved and knew them all, especially side 2. Great nostalgic piece. I hadn't heard the pieces in over 30 years and I could still sing right along. My favorite was the Ballad of Irving. My brother gave me a copy and we played it in the car and the kids laughed as did my older friend who is also Jewish and had never heard it before.
Had I not had the experience of years in NYC and working with many wonderful Jewish people, though, I think I'd be rather lost in this. Wonderful, clean, family-safe humor of the old classical style.A bit dated, but it still holds up very, very well.One needs a pretty good understanding of American Jewish culture to fully get into it, though; otherwise, you will find it rather boring, like being invited to a friend's family dinner in which they talk only in in-jokes and family code all night.But for those in-the-know, this is great, classic humor.Thankfully I've had enough Jewish friends and been around Jewish culture that I get most of it - not quite all of it, not in the same way that a person who truly lives in that culture would get it, but I get most of it. And even as a gentile, I find it hilarious.
The irony is that the composer's name was Mark Bucci, a brilliant opera composer, and I didn't know if anyone was aware of that. In the sixties I had a close friend, now deceased, who wrote a song he called, When You're in Love the Whole World is Jewish. Jeeeeez I would love a copy, but I sure won't spend eighty bucks for it. He was not Jewish but he was a New Yorker, which, I guess, is close. Anyway, the song became the title of this first revue on discs, so you never know do you.
This stuff was a powerful oasis in my youth. All the players have got their voices finely honed for the material. I bought every LP Allan Sherman made and knew all his songs by heart.My first exposure to this collection was in a 1968 Lincoln Mark III that belonged to my father's attorney. In the tight interior of the Lincoln, all the laughter was quite concentrated.
Gallop also performs on some selections.There are so many reviews here with very worthwhile comments, and I was delighted to read them all. The humor is sweet and simple. I miss them deeply. But the main thing with this disc is to put it on and allow yourself to float in its warmth and love. Each selection is introduced by the late Frank Gallop, whose excellent diction lends a contrasting touch of delightful stuffiness, perhaps a certain WASP-ish dignity to the show. It was an unusual childhood, I can now say with ease and without regret.
It pokes, of course, but gently and with heart, reminding me of a culture that's now almost gone. Those are the essence of this production, which was purely a labor of love from a period when there was magic in the air. He'd drive the big car to our house, and into it my father and I would climb to listen to this marvelous humor come from the in-dash 8-track player. It must have penetrated me indelibly, because this disc still does the trick, even though I know what's coming.The charm of this work is manifold.
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