Customer Reviews

You Don't Have to Be Jewish/When You're in Love the Whole World Is Jewish

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I was thrilled to find this album on Amazon. I have great memories of listening to the LP version of this album during the 1960s with my parents. It was a testament to the comedy that parents and kids alike would laugh out loud during the routines, and that everyone from Grandma to the baby of the family (that would be me) could recite the lines in unison. Forty years later, I can still remember the jokes! I thought that this great show would live only in my memories, but then I discovered the CD version on Amazon. I ordered copies immediately for myself and my parents. I'm delighted to report that the comedy routines are as hilarious today as they were forty years ago. The routines have aged well, and the delivery is timeless.

It may be somewhat ironic that "You Don't Have to Be Jewish" was a great Christmas tradition in my family. When the extended family would gather for the holiday at least one evening would be spent sitting around the stereo listening to incredible comedy albums.

The top 3 that were always requested year to year were "You Don't Have to Be Jewish", "To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With" by Bill Cosby, and "The Wit & Wisdom of Andy Griffith". Of the three this is the one that still gets punch lines quoted every time we get together.

This past Christmas I gave copies of this to my nieces and nephews to continue the tradition. Now when one of us says, "Does that mean you're not coming?" and we all break into gales of laughter, they no longer have to look like we have completely lost our minds. They'll understand the reference and be able to laugh along with us.

I've also completely converted my husband. Anytime we are getting ready for a road trip, this is one of the first cds to get packed into the travel case. We could both quote the entire cd by heart, but it still cracks us up like it's the first time we've heard it.

The title is completely accurate. You don't have to be Jewish to completely love this humor.

The title, as everyone will tell you is true: My gentile mom was just as big a fan of the 1965 album as my dad and his Ukrainian Jewish mother. "The Reading of the Will" is one favorite family classic, as is the hide-and-seek playing wife who, drawn out by her husband's offer of expensive jewelry, coyly proclaims, "I'm hiiii-ding ... IN THE FRONT CLOSET!" More than 40 years later, the jokes still hold up, though Mom did observe when we listened to the CD that more of the jokes than she remembered are slightly mean-spirited. Don't misunderstand: They are never mean-spirited toward Jewish people, only toward whichever person is the butt of the joke. The second album in this double CD was a 1966 follow-up to the Grammy-nominated original, and contains one version of "The Ballad of Irving," a song that will be familiar to any Dr. Demento fan. (Sorry to say, this version does NOT have the line, "He came from the old Bar Mitzvah spread / With a 10-gallon yarmulke on his head"!)



You don't have to be Jewish, indeed, but familiarity with the turf does help you understand some of the humor, particularly on the follow-up "When You're in Love...." On that album, there's a whole bit about a woman who can't remember her son's surname; even as an adult, I didn't get it until Mom explained that it's a reference to the tendency to choose a less "ethnic" name to get along. But the majority of the material was funny even to my little grade-school self in the 1970s, and it still holds up well today in its universal themes as well as in its culture-specific jabs.

When I was a child in the late 1960 and early 1970's , I grew up listening to album productions by Producers Bob Booker and George Foster. Such producers did the albums the First Family and the First Family Rides Again (poking fun at the presidency of John Kennedy, these two albums and a few other albums lost to lp hell (unavailable on CD).

These two albums of Jewish humor are placed on one CD showcases one line type jewish jokes and skits which Laugh-in would be known for later on. This is the kind of humor which Allan Sherman and Myron Cohon honed into their acts.

With a cast of actors (which included Lou Jacobi, Jack Gilford, Arlene Golonka, Frank Gallop,Betty Walker, Valerie (Rhoda) Harper and Bob McFadden) doing this audio skit comedy, the jokes are standard ethinic Jewish jokes that are still funny today. These bits seem to be incorparated from old yiddish theater and Catskills comedy. This collection pokes it funny at satiring everything from James Bond (James Bondstein) to the reading of the family will (one of the best selections). Some of these skit punchlines you will see coming, however it is still funny over 35 years later if you have not heard them before..And if you have, as my grandmother told me "You can listen to it again!"

For Dr Demento fans, Frank Gallop does the Immortal "The Ballad of Irving" which is on this collection as well as Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection: The Greatest Novelty Records of All Time

So as the CD states You dont have to be Jewish..but once you hear it, you will become jewish with laughter

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

A very funny CD, bringing back many fond memories of my teenage years when I first heard the record album with my family. Of course, when I was younger I probably didn't really understand most of the humor, but it was still funny the way the stories were told and the various scenarios presented. Also, sometimes people listening laugh so hard, that you can miss much of the dialogue and will need to rewind. Definitely worth buying and listening. They don't make them like this anymore.

My family had the LP when I was growning up, so happy to find it in CD format. It's going to be a suprise gift this holiday season. Shipping was fast,thanks

Betty Walker--Frank Gallop--Lou Jacobi--Phil Leeds
and Great Comedy Scripts//And They Spell Talent And Great
Listening Pleasure//You Won't Hear Bad language All You
Will Hear Is Comedy At It's best//So Treat Yourself And Enjoy

Stanley Cooper Jupiter Florida
zoundz@bellsouth.net

A friend had the LP "You Don't Have to be Jewish" years ago and made me a cassette from it, which I listened to many times in the car. But it's been lost for years, so I was happy to see this, which adds another album to the original. The old "give 'im some chicken soup" joke has been a standard of mine for over 30 years. And the reading of the will reduces me to tears of laughter every time. This is just good, clean, funny stuff!

My children listened to this when they were young, and now at age 47, my son is telling the funny lines to his friends. He tells me he loved this album that his grandmother had. Guess what! He's getting his very own "You Don't Have to be Jewish" for Christmas (we are Catholic :})

Hillariously funny, well written and superbly performed. Great to listen to in your car. No home, especially Jewish, should be without it. It makes you laugh with tears and cry with joy.