My Son, the Celebrity

Last updated
My Son, the Celebrity
My Son, the Celebrity.jpeg
Studio album by
Allan Sherman
Released January 1963
RecordedNovember 30, 1962
Genre Comedy Music
Length35:03
Label Warner Bros.
Allan Sherman chronology
My Son, the Folk Singer
(1962)
My Son, the Celebrity
(1963)
My Son, the Nut
(1963)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [1]

My Son, the Celebrity is a musical comedy album by Allan Sherman, released in the United States by Warner Bros. in January 1963.

Contents

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 (Monaural) chart for the week ending March 9, 1963. It was released less than three months after My Son, the Folk Singer , which reached #1 on the same chart in December 1962. [2]

My Son, the Celebrity followed the same template as My Son, the Folk Singer , mixing comic parodies of popular songs with cultural references and Jewish humor. Lou Busch once again provided orchestration.

Track listing

Side One

  1. "Al 'n' Yetta" ("Alouette")
  2. "Barry is the Baby's Name" / "Horowitz" / "Get on the Garden Freeway" ("Mary is a Grand Old Name", "Harrigan", "Give My Regards to Broadway")
  3. "Mexican Hat Dance"
  4. "The Bronx Bird Watcher" ("Willow, tit-willow (On a tree by a river)")
  5. "The Let's All Call Up A.T.&T. and Protest to the President March"
  6. "Harvey and Sheila" ("Hava Nagila")

Side Two

  1. "Won't You Come Home, Disraeli" ("Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey")
  2. "No One's Perfect" (to the tune of a well-known alma mater, "Far Above Cayuga's Waters")
  3. "When I Was a Lad" (to the tune of the same name from H.M.S. Pinafore )
  4. "Me" ("Torna a Surriento")
  5. "Shticks of One and a Half a Dozen of the Other" (medley)

Chart positions

YearChartPositionWeeksDates
1963 Billboard's Top 150 Best Selling LPs (Monaural) 11March 9, 1963
1963 Billboard's Top 50 Best Selling LPs (Stereo) 42February 9–16, 1963

Songs

As with My Son, The Folk Singer, almost all the songs on the album contain some Jewish reference, or at least a main character or characters with apparently Jewish names. [3]

Related Research Articles

Allan Sherman American actor and comedian (1924-1973)

Allan Sherman was an American actor, singer, producer and writer 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 Fadduh", a comic novelty in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours.

<i>Poodle Hat</i> 2003 studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Poodle Hat is the eleventh studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on May 20, 2003. It was the fifth studio album self-produced by Yankovic. The musical styles on the album are built around parodies and pastiches of pop of the early-2000s. The album's lead single, "Couch Potato", is a parody of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. The single failed to chart, although the album's song "eBay" eventually peaked at 15 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles in 2007.

<i>Kicking Against the Pricks</i> 1986 studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Kicking Against the Pricks is the third album released by the rock music group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. First released in 1986, the album is a collection of Cave's interpretations of songs by other artists. The title is a reference to a biblical quote from King James version of the Bible, Acts 26, verse 14.

An American Trilogy 1972 single by Elvis Presley

"An American Trilogy" is a 1971 song medley arranged by country composer Mickey Newbury and popularized by Elvis Presley, who included it as a showstopper in his concert routines. The medley uses three 19th-century songs:

"Jamaica Farewell" is a Jamaican-style folk song (mento). The lyrics for the song were written by Lord Burgess, an American-born, half-Barbadian songwriter. It is about the beauties of the West Indian Islands.

Aura Lea Song

"Aura Lea" is an American Civil War song about a maiden. It was written by W. W. Fosdick (lyrics) and George R. Poulton (music) but sometimes is attributed to Stephen Foster. The melody was used in Elvis Presley's 1956 hit song "Love Me Tender".

My Grandfathers Clock

"My Grandfather's Clock" is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music. The Oxford English Dictionary says the song was the origin of the term "grandfather clock" for a longcase clock. In 1905, the earliest known recording of this song was performed by Harry Macdonough and the Haydn Quartet.

On Top of Old Smoky Traditional song

"On Top of Old Smoky" is a traditional folk song of the United States. As recorded by The Weavers, the song reached the pop music charts in 1951. It is catalogued as Roud Folk Song Index No. 414.

<i>Together</i> (The Supremes and the Temptations album) 1969 studio album by Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations

Together, released by Motown in 1969, was the second and final duets studio album combining Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations into an eight-person Motown act. Like the first duets LP, Diana Ross & the Supremes Join The Temptations, it is composed almost entirely of covers, including versions of The Band's "The Weight", Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song", Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and Motown songs like "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "Uptight ". "The Weight" was the only single in the US, and failed to make it into the American Top 40. "Why ", a UK exclusive single, was a Top 40 hit on the UK singles charts.

"The Little White Cloud that Cried" is a popular song written by Johnnie Ray and published in 1951.

(Wont You Come Home) Bill Bailey Song performed by Al Hirt

"(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey", originally titled "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please.... Come Home?" is a popular song published in 1902. It is commonly referred to as simply "Bill Bailey".

"The Riddle Song", also known as "I Gave My Love a Cherry", is an English folk song, a lullaby carried over by settlers to the American Appalachians.

Waterboy (song)

"Waterboy" is an American traditional folk song. It is built on the call "Water boy, where are you hidin'?" The call is one of several water boy calls in cotton plantation folk tradition.

<i>My Son, the Folk Singer</i> 1962 studio album by Allan Sherman

My Son, the Folk Singer is an album by Allan Sherman, released by Warner Bros. Records in 1962. On the album sleeve, the title appears directly below the words "Allan Sherman's mother presents."

"Comin' Thro' the Rye" is a poem written in 1782 by Robert Burns (1759–1796). The words are put to the melody of the Scottish Minstrel "Common' Frae The Town". This is a variant of the tune to which "Auld Lang Syne" is usually sung—the melodic shape is almost identical, the difference lying in the tempo and rhythm.

<i>WOW Gospel 2004</i> 2004 compilation album by Various Artists

WOW Gospel 2004 is a gospel music compilation album from the WOW series. Released January 27, 2004, it includes thirty songs on a double CD album. It reached number 27 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2004, and hit number one on the Top Gospel Albums chart that year and also in 2006; it made number 19 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 2004. The album cover pays tribute to Houston, Texas.

"Dear Old Donegal" is an Irish-American song popularised by American singer Bing Crosby and written by Steve Graham. The song has an 'upbeat' rhythm and is meant to be the words of a poor Irishman who has to leave his homeland to go to United States, however, he gets to return to his native County Donegal after becoming successful in the United States.

The Midnight Beast British rock band

The Midnight Beast, sometimes abbreviated as TMB, is a British comedy/parody music group from London. They are most famous for their YouTube cover-parody of the 2009 single "TiK ToK" by American pop artist Ke$ha. The group currently has three members: Stefan Abingdon, Dru Wakely and Ashley Horne.

"Pick a Bale of Cotton" is a traditional American folk song and work song first recorded by Texas inmates James "Iron Head" Baker (1933) and Mose "Clear Rock" Platt (1939) and later popularized by Lead Belly.

References

  1. Allmusic review
  2. "My Son, the Celebrity". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  3. "Shine on, Harvey Bloom: Why Allan Sherman made us laugh. - Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. 1994-04-22. Retrieved 2012-01-11.