50 and Counting

Mordechai, who initially knew nothing about this impromptu performance, says he was quivering that whole Shabbos, not stepping out of his bungalow, dreading the moment Shabbos would be over.

“But my friends insisted,” he remembers. “They came over and literally dragged me to the auditorium, depositing me on the stage. I was shaking, but then I started singing, and somehow my fears melted away.”

He sang a few of his father’s songs and some of the songs from his own upcoming first album. It wasn’t exactly a concert to remember, but for Mordechai Ben David, it ignited a trajectory he could never have fathomed in his wildest dreams.

“My first real performance was at Brooklyn College in 1972, where I sang as the opening act for the Ohr Chodosh group before an audience of about 2,500 people — and I got a whopping $50 for that night,” the “King of Jewish Music” says of his debut, as he celebrates 50 years in the industry. “Reb Moishe Kahan a”h, a record producer, apparently liked my singing and asked me to do the opening for an upcoming concert with Yigal Calek and the London School of Jewish Song, who were touring New York then. By then my fee had gone up to $250.”