Allan Sherman news: His very first Jewish song parody

Was Allan Sherman a Humpty Dumpty?

Allan Sherman news? How can there be Allan Sherman news? The guy has been dead for almost 37 years.

There can be news because I’ve been researching his life for a biography, and I’ve interviewed dozens of his friends and family and obtained a great deal of original material and recordings from archives and individuals.

Incredibly, considering how many celebrities have been the subject of biographies, and how famous Sherman was and remains, my biography will be the first.

So to generate renewed interest in Sherman and discover others who enjoy him, I’m going to post Sherman news that I’ve uncovered.

And here it is, Sherman’s first Jewish parody.

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a train/Happily singing ‘Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.’”

These lines appeared in Sherman’s junior high school year book, in June 1938, when he was 13 years old.

What’s remarkable is how much of Sherman’s interests are already apparent. Here, Yiddish and singing are linked to happiness, and the parody of the Mother Goose rhyme anticipates his 1962 folk song parodies on My Son, The Folk Singer.

But why did Sherman come up with Humpty Dumpty as his stand-in? Well, Sherman was already roly-poly, and Humpty’s bulbous shape may account for the feeling of kinship.

But I think it was Humpty’s misfortune to be broken beyond repair that is the real connection to Sherman. His parents’ divorce when he was seven was part of that rupture. Just as painful, judging by the Jewish subject in his songs from the start, was the battle over his Jewish identity.

I’ll get to that in the next post.