In the summer of 1963, radio stations across the country were playing Allan Sherman's novelty song about a kid's miserable experience at camp, “Hello Muddah, Hello Fuddah.” The song came from Sherman's album My Son, the Nut which was the last comedy album to hit the top of the charts before "Weird Al" Yankovic's Mandatory Fun hit number one this summer.
Sherman was a short, rotund man with a crew cut and black-rimmed glasses and a genius for writing clever, witty lyrics set to favorite folk tunes, classical melodies and pop songs. His song parodies were so popular in the early 60's that reportedly even President Kennedy was heard singing them in halls of the White House.
Sherman's spectacular fame began in the fall of 1962 with the unexpected success of his first album, My Son, the Folksinger, a collection of Jewish-themed parody songs. It hit number one on the charts and went gold, as did his two follow-ups, My Son, the Celebrity and My Son, the Nut, all released within just ten months. But Sherman’s meteoric rise to the top of show business was followed by a tragic fall and he died in obscurity a decade later. Writer Mark Cohen tells the story of the brilliant song parodist in the book Overweight Sensation: the Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman, writer Mark Cohen tells the story of the brilliant song parodist. He joined Dakota Midday and said that after more than five decades, Allan Sherman’s best work is still relevant.
