Release Date: 11/09/2004
Recording Date: 1/1964
Tracks: 4
Length: 00:45:22 Hrs
Label: Collectors' Choice Music
Type: CD
- Genre/Styles
- Orchestral Pop, Movie Themes, Classical Crossover
Album Tracks (4)
Currently 0.0 / 5.0 Stars
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What the Critics Say
When Allan Sherman called his night with Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops "the most exciting night of my life," it turned out to be the literal truth. This was probably the apex of his meteoric career as a musical comedian, a tumultuous live appearance at Tanglewood in front of a guess-timated 13,327 fans, where he took on classical music and a whole bunch of other things. This being Cold War time, "Peter and the Commissar" -- a complete rewrite of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" (with the help of orchestrator Jerry Fielding) -- had an obvious resonance for armchair patriots. But Sherman was careful to poke fun at commissars and committees of all ideologies, so even today, this tale of a young songwriter whose work is rejected and rewritten by authorities who think they know what the public wants has ominous resonance. Besides Sherman's clever rhymes, the piece has a dead-on parody of Stan Getz in his bossa nova period by The Tonight Show tenor saxophonist Tommy Newsom and other really funny musical surprises. In Variations on 'How Dry I Am'," Sherman takes the baton from Fielding, who is content to be a guest soloist (he hiccups -- twice). This turns out to be a precursor of Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach quodlibets (which went public the following year), as the old drunk tune leads into several well-known tunes from several idioms to the general amusement of all. Finally, the wicked parodist takes careful aim at the repetitious codas of many a great composer in "The End of a Symphony," in which not a note of Schubert, Mozart, or Beethoven is altered. From this high point, Sherman's career entered a sad, rapid decline, ending with his premature death at 48 (ironically aggravated by alcohol) in 1973. Never reissued, this remains one of the more elusive and most hilarious Sherman albums, having been pressed in lesser quantities than his Warner Bros. output -- and on a classical label at that. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
