Allan Sherman

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Allan Sherman in a guest appearance in the US television series "The Loner" (1965)

Allan Sherman (born November 30, 1924 in Chicago as Allan Copelon , † November 20, 1973 in Los Angeles ) was an American musician , parodist , satirist and television producer. His greatest success was the song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp) . Sherman is considered a forerunner of other parodists like Weird Al Yankovic , who explicitly mentions him on his first album as a source of ideas.

author

Allan Sherman began his entertainment career in the late 1940s writing for Joe E. Lewis and Jackie Gleason .

TV producer

From 1949 he appeared as a producer of various television series , such as The Herb Shriner Show (from 1949), Masquerade Party (from 1952) or Hobby Lobby (from 1959). He developed the concept of the American TV series I've Got A Secret , of which he was the producer from 1952 to 1958. After his release, which resulted from a failed episode of the series in June 1958, he worked as a writer and producer on the Steve Allen Show until 1961 .

Musician

In 1962, Sherman signed a contract with Warner Bros. Records . In the following years he wrote, produced and sang numerous so-called novelty songs , parodies of well-known songs and classics. Sherman kept the melodies of the songs but changed the lyrics.

His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer (December 1962), contained self-written parodies of popular songs and classics. The most famous song on this album was Sarah Jackman , a parody of the French nursery rhyme Frère Jacques , in which a telephone caller asks Sarah Jackman about the whereabouts of (common) relatives. Sherman set up the song in a question-and-answer form: the caller (Sherman) asked for a person, and the person called (sung by Christine Nelson) then told current family gossip in verse (Sherman: "How your uncle Nathan?" Sarah: "Him I got no faith in". Sherman: "What's your sister Rita?" Sarah: "A regular Lolita"). This song was allegedly sung by then US President John F. Kennedy in a hotel lobby. The album also contained a parody of Harry Belafontes Matilda , which became My Zelda on Sherman . The album My Son, the Folk Singer was a surprise hit with 1.2 million units sold. It was the fastest selling record in pop music to date.

In March 1963 the album My Son, the Celebrity followed and then My Son, the Nut (October 1963), which included other novelty songs and also achieved successful chart positions. From My Son, the Nut , Sherman published in advance in August 1963 as the single Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp) , which became his best-known song, rose to number 2 on the US pop hit parade and became a million seller; Just two weeks after its publication, 300,000 copies had been sold. The song deals with a letter from a boy from the fictional holiday camp "Camp Granada" to his parents, in which the little one complains about bad weather, bad food and bad supervisory staff. When the weather gets better all ailments are gone. The song is an adaptation of the composition Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli , which was best known in the USA for its use in the Disney film Fantasia . Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh received a Grammy Award .

The LPs Allan In Wonderland (May 1964), Songs For Swinging Livers Only (January 1965) or My Name Is Allan (January 1966) followed, but Sherman's successes waned. Observers attribute this to a change in mood in the USA, which had become more serious after the murder of John F. Kennedy and had little interest in humorous songs.

After the LP Togetherness (April 1967) Allan Sherman stopped recording. Although he still performed live in Las Vegas, he was no longer successful here either.

Sherman died impoverished of emphysema in 1973 at the age of 48 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See entry on Allan Sherman on the website www.allmusic.com (accessed April 7, 2012).
  2. ^ Josef Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 183
  3. ↑ See entry on Allan Sherman on the website www.allmusic.com (accessed April 7, 2012).
personal data
SURNAME Sherman, Allan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Copelon, Allan (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician, parodist, satirist, and television producer
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH 20th November 1973
Place of death los Angeles