Customer Reviews

Greatest Shticks

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My father had a huge stack of Mickey Katz 45's hidden away in the closet of the "office" and when I was about 9 or 10 I got to them and in due time got hooked.

When Mickey Katz passed away 10 years ago, one would have thought (sadly), that would be last of him... forever forgotten. Even when I was 10 the only place you could find his records most of the times were in small Jewish gift shops, and even then it was always the same one or two albums (which probably had been sitting on the shelf since 1950's.) - - Now its the Millenium, mainstream Jazz clarinetist Don Byron is playing his stuff at the ultra hip "Knitting Factory" and, heck, Amazon is carrying his stuff... people are even trading his MP3s you know where. At this rate, Joel Grey's Daddy's may gain a posthumous popularity as that never seen of a borscht belt comedian.

Mickey Katz for years was the King of The Borscht belt. He took the Spike Jones formula of song parody, added a touch of Klezmer to it and a spattering of Yiddish words (a bit more than Lenny Bruce, but not as much as the Barton Brothers) and became a legend (check out his bio "Pappa Play for Me if you can hunt it down anywhere.)

Katz's outrageously elastic voice and wit, and his ability to pull together top notch studio musicians (he himself was a master clarinetist) and pull off the same formula that launched his mentor Spike Jones to fame (and later parodists like Allen Sherman and Wierd Al Yankovik) have earned him a place not just in the annals of "Jewish ethnic music", but the world of Dr. Demento and musical comedy as well.

Viva le *glug*meister !

Those post-Holocaust pessimists who foretold the demise of the Yiddish culture never reckoned with the invention of the music CD. Here is yet another collection of vintage Borscht Belt, recovered from long forgotten LPs and re-released for a whole new generation of Jews to discover and enjoy. Even if you don't understand Yiddish, (Yinglish, actually, since Mickey Katz sings in a mixture of Yiddish and English), you will find these klezmerized parodies absolutely hilarious. Numbers like "Yiddish Mule Train" and "Sixteen Tons (of hard salami)" need no translation to be funny. And who knows? You might find out that you know more Yiddish than you think you do!

There are no highlights to this CD. EVERY TRACK is great! First of all, the songs themselves are extremely enjoyable. Add the arrangements--that toe-tapping, pulse-pounding, Yiddish / Dixieland "Klezmer" sound--and then add Mickey's vocalizing and his very funny send-ups of the lyrics, and you've got a solidly satisfying shtikel of songs. If you're reading this review, then you must have had some interest in Mickey Katz to start with (or else you asked the search engine to connect you to songs containing the words BORSCHT, SMIDGICK, or SCHLEMIEL). Get this!

Watching my father lipsync to Mickey Katz was one of the greatest pleasures of my childhood. Tom Lehrer, Mickey Katz, my father a meshugana and wacky children joining in---some of the nicest people I've ever met were the ones who would hear me babbling the words to "Where is my pants?" and who didn't shake their heads but joined in.

I can still remember the cover of the album "the Meshugana Mickey Katz" as it lay on the top of the pile of LPs...we always thought of Joel Grey as "you know, Mickey Katz's son..."

To whoever finally put some of these recordings on CD...Thanks...and how about some more?????

My folks were huge fans of Mickey Katz. When I put the CD on I almost immediately could do the words of all the songs - and I haven't heard them for 35 years. This is the ultimate MK collection and I'm thrilled to be able to hear them again and share them with my own kids!

I remember my parents (zt"l) listening to these while was in my cradle. Now I can share these with my children and shed happy tears remembering those days. Anyone who needs to laugh and can understand even a smidgen of the Mammaloshen will fall in love with these classics all over again. This is a MUST HAVE for any collection.

A friend and I, both in our early twenties at the time, used to listen to my father's 33rpm of these tunes. It was my friend's favorite record. My father passed away, the record somehow disappeared and my friend has been bugging me for well over forty years about the disappearance (of the record, not of my dad). He last hassled me about it only a couple of months ago. Now I can present him with this CD for his 70th birthday in a couple of months. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the people who issued the CD.

From my childhood on, I have reveled in the music of Mickey Katz. Originally issued as yiddish comedy records, the records, originally on 78's went into oblivion with the number of yiddish speakers. A few survived, and the best of them are on this release. Even if you have to listen with a yiddish english phrase book, or dictionary, it is worth the effort not to let this wonderful humor disappear.

I stumbled upon Mickey Katz browsing for good comedy CDs for the drive. What a find. The musicians are superb, the parodies are priceless and then there's Katz himself whose musical talent, intelligence, and zaniness are over the top. Barber Of Schlemiel, which is in this excellent collection, is a masterpiece in the category with Warner Brother's What's Opera Doc? Katz uses a fair amount of Yiddish (about 1/3 Yiddish, 2/3's English), but you can get away with a rudimentary knowledge and basic knowledge of Jewish culture and holidays. You'll learn a lot more from listening, and from when your better-Yiddish-understanding friend next to you falls of his or her chair from laughing so hard.

I've been looking for along time for a DVD of Mickey Katz performing this work. I hope that video of his performances exists somewhere -- the thought of his performances being gone forever is saddening. Perhaps someone can convince Joel Grey (Katz's son) to root through the attic for films.

I very highly recommend this CD. It's superb.

This CD really is both musical and funny. A knowledge of some Yiddish would be helpful. The songs demonstrate his genius and versatility. A great CD !