The backstories of those favorite albums that still frame our memories
As a cheder rebbi in Talmud Torah Hamesorah, I realized that songs are a magnetic teaching tool: Not only do the children learn quickly and pleasantly, but they also retain the content. I created songs in order for the students to remember information, such as the names of the parshiyos, the Shivas Haminim, the names of the shevatim and the months, and soon I had the boys’ parents asking me to send a recording home so they could keep up. I would sit down with eight tape recorders, count to three, push eight buttons, and then sing the songs we sang in class, accompanying myself on guitar.
At some point, it dawned on me that there was a simpler way. I played and sang into just one cassette and took it to the Gal-Paz music store on Rechov Malchei Yisrael, asking Chaim Zilber a”h, the owner, to make me a dozen copies on his machine. He was curious about what the tape was, and when I told him, he said “Let’s do something professional in the studio.” Jeff Horvitz ran the studio and arranged the music, and Pirchei Purim in Hebrew was the first album, in 1985. When it went over well, Gal-Paz asked me to do more albums.
Summers, looking for a bit of peace and quiet after an intense year of teaching, I often found myself sitting by the sea in Kiryat Sanz, Netanya, relaxing with my pen and notebook. At times it was just me and the lifeguard. Sitting there, I wrote more songs, like “In the Month of Elul,” “Mashiv Haruach Umorid Hageshem,” and “Pharaoh in Pajamas in the Middle of the Night,” which went on the Ma’agal Hashanah / Around the Year album.
The first albums were in Hebrew, until it struck me that I could do this in my native tongue. After that, my method was to write the songs in both Hebrew and English. Whichever version came out best, I then translated into the other language. The series developed slowly but surely. In those days there wasn’t much advertising, and no frum radio to promote new music. Most of our publicity was only word of mouth.
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