August 6, 1962: Comedian Allan Sherman records an album in front of a live audience in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. He titles it Allan Sherman's Mother Presents My Son, the Folk Singer.
Allan Gerald Copelon was born on November 30, 1924 in Chicago. Unlike so many other Jewish entertainers, he actually adopted a more Jewish-sounding surname, which was his mother's maiden name. He first became famous by co-creating the TV game show I've Got a Secret. Eventually, he moved to the Brentwood section of West Los Angeles, next-door to Harpo Marx of the Marx Brothers, who enjoyed Allan's penchant for writing song parodies. This led to the recording session in question.
Sherman belonged to a generation of Jewish Americans whose parents were immigrants, and not really assimilated into American culture, but were raised to have one foot in each culture: To be as American as possible, but still have respect for "the old country" and the old ways.
Thus, his comedy, like that of his contemporaries Mel Brooks and Alan King, reflected that he was a city kid who was firmly ensconced in the suburbs upon becoming successful, but still with lots of references to the old ways and frequent use of Yiddish words. Just a few years younger than those, Woody Allen was not so much a Jewish American, but an American who was Jewish. There was a difference, and it showed in their comedy styles.
This showed in the songs Sherman chose, leaning into the current folk music boom. One was "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," which became "The Ballad of Harry Lewis," who worked for a clothing manufacturer, Irving Roth:
Oh, Harry Lewis perished
in the service of his lord.
He was trampling through the warehouse
where the drapes of Roth are stored.
He had the finest funeral
the union could afford
and his cloth goes shining on!
He turned Harry Belafonte's calypso numbers "Matilda" into "My Zelda" and "Waterboy" into "Seltzer Boy," the cowboy song "The Streets of Laredo" into "The Streets of Miami," the French song "Frere Jacques" into "Sarah Jackman," and "Shortnin' Bread" into "Matzo Ball."
The album hit Number 1 on Billboard magazine's album chart, and inspired a sequel, released in early 1963: Allan Sherman's Mother Presents My Son, the Celebrity. This time, along with folk songs (the French song "Alouette" became "Al 'n' Yetta," and the classic Jewish song "Hava Nagila" became "Harvey and Sheila"), he added Broadway songs and other "show tunes." He did a medley of George M. Cohan's songs, concluding by turning "Give My Regards to Broadway" into "Get On the Garden Freeway." He redid "When I Was a Lad" from Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore. And he closed by turning "Down By the Riverside" into "Don't Buy the Liverwurst."
This album also hit Number 1, and inspired a 3rd album, released in the Summer of 1963: Allan Sherman's Mother Presents My Son, the Nut. This produced his only hit single, to the tune of Amilcare Ponchielli's 1876 "Dance of the Hours," which had previously been used in Walt Disney's film Fantasia: "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter from Camp)."
It seemed Sherman could do no wrong. Then, in 1964, he did something wrong. Not scandalous, but dumb: On his album For Swingin' Livers Only (the title a parody of Frank Sinatra's For Swingin' Lovers Only), to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel," he wrote and recorded a song titled "Pop Hates the Beatles." It was easily the biggest anti-Beatle song, but was drowned out by the Beatles themselves and novelty songs supporting them. Although grownups still liked him, and he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show a few times, he had lost the kids.
He tried to stay relevant. In 1967, on Ed Sullivan, he presaged the environmental movement by turning "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" into "Smog Gets In Your Eyes." In 1969, with Albert Hague, he wrote a musical, The Fig Leaves Are Falling, but it closed on Broadway after 4 performances.
He should have waited a bit longer: One of the cast was David Cassidy, son of Broadway legend Jack Cassidy, and, a year later, with his stepmother Shirley Jones, one of the stars of the TV show The Partridge Family. In 1971, Sherman voiced the title character in a cartoon based on Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. But he was already a relic of an earlier time.
To make matters worse, he ate like a horse, drank like a fish, and smoked like a chimney. He knew he was harming his health: To the tune of "Polly Wolly Doodle All Day," he once sang:
Oh, I diet all day
and I diet all night.
It's enough to drive me bats.
No gravy or potatoes
'cause the whole refrigerator's
full of polyunsaturated fats!
Fare the well
Metrecal
and the others of that ilk!
Let the diet start tomorrow
'cause today I'll drown my sorrow
in a double malted milk!
(Metrecal was an early diet-supplement shake, a precursor to Slim-Fast. Introduced in 1959, the fad ended by 1965, and it was discontinued in 1978.)
On November 20, 1973, 10 days before he would have turned 49, all of Allan Sherman's excesses caught up with him: In yet another night of entertaining his friends at his home in Los Angeles, he died of respiratory failure. This was 4 years after the "Paul Is Dead" controversy, and someone pointed out that the man who wrote "Pop Hates the Beatles" got a shorter obituary than Paul McCartney, who wasn't even really dead.
And with the coming of "Weird Al" Yankovic in the 1980s, people have forgotten that Sherman was ever there. Like John F. Kennedy impersonator Vaughn Meader, whose album The First Family competed with Sherman's albums for attention, the fad is now a historical curiosity, and little else.
*
August 6, 1962 was a Monday. Actress Michelle Yeoh was born. And these baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 5-4 at Yankee Stadium. Roger Maris and Bill "Moose" Skowron hit home runs. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-3 with a walk. So did Harmon Killebrew, who added an RBI. Yogi Berra appeared as a pinch-hitter, but did not reach base.
* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1 at the new Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Johnny Podres, hero of the Dodgers' 1955 Brooklyn triumph, outpitched Jay Hook. Duke Snider appeared as a pinch-hitter, but did not reach base. The next year, he played for the Mets.
* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 1-0 at the new District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (D.C. Stadium was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) Ed Rakow pitched a 6-hit shutout, outpitching Claude Osteen. The only run of game came in the top of the 4th, when former Yankee Norm Siebern doubled future Met Ed Charles home.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Steve Boros hit 3 home runs, but they were all solo homers, and the Tigers only got 2 other hits. Al Kaline went 0-for-4 with a walk. Ty Cline hit a sacrifice fly to score Bubba Phillips with the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-5.But it was unrelated Floyd Robinson who won the game for the South Siders in the bottom of the 11th inning, singling home Jim Landis.
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4. Ernie Banks did not play.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Colt .45s, 1-0 at Colt Stadium in Houston. Bob Purkey of Cincinnati pitched shutout ball for 10 innings, while Turk Farrell of Houston did it for 12. Reds reliever Johnny Klippstein won the game himself with a home run off Don McMahon in the top of the 13th inning. Frank Robinson went 1-for-5. The Colts became the Houston Astros in 1965.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Just another day at the office for Willie Mays: 5-for-5 with 2 home runs, 5 RBIs, and 4 catches without an error in center field. One of the homers came off Dallas Green, who would manage the Phillies to win the 1980 World Series.
* And the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled.
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