Editorial Review:

Album Description:
One of my fondest family memories of my wonderful childhood in the 1960's was listening to record albums on the hi-fi set in the den. Real records, that you had to flip over after side one, and be careful not to leave on top of the toaster oven. This was a time where my Little Golden Books and little transistor radio were my essential bedtime companions. Not to mention the hot mug of Ovaltine that Mom would make us before hitting the sack.

'You Don't Have To Be Jewish' and it's follow up, 'When You're In Love, The Whole World Is Jewish' were both staples in the Lifson home. Jewish comedy was not available to me as a kid through visits to the Catskills, so these albums, along with 'Chanukah Carols' (also available on JMG) were my first exposure to a genre which would help prepare me for the Woody Allen and Albert Brooks movies I would love watching in the next decade, the '70s, and have enjoyed ever since. These very funny records were the brainchild of producer Bob Booker, who had produced a hugely successful pair of albums called 'The First Family' which lampooned the Kennedy clan, with actor Vaughn Meader doing a brilliant JFK. These were essential listening for the early '60s, but after JFK's assassination, were quickly antiquated.

For 'You Don't Have To Be Jewish,' Producer Booker, pairing with writer George Foster, assembled a first class ensemble of comedic actors to play the jokes and blackout type sketches on this LP. Lou Jacobi was seen on countless sitcoms as the 'Jewish Dad' type, and Valerie Harper, who would later star as 'Rhoda' on 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show.' Also featured were Arlene Golonka, who played Ken Berry's girlfriend on 'Mayberry R.F.D.' and Bob Mc Fadden, who were the voices behind many cartoon characters including one version of 'Popeye' and one of my '60s faves, 'Milton The Monster.' And who could forget actor Jack Gilford from the many 'Crackerjack' commercials he did, where he is caught eating the kid's Crakerjack late at night?

The sketches on these two wonderfully nostalgic albums played like a prequel, maybe more Jewish version, of TV's 'Laugh In' which would appear just a couple years later, in the Fall of 1968. The cast of 'You Don't Have To Be Jewish' were invited to appear on the Ed Sullivan show, because of the broad appeal of the album's humor. It was clean and quaint, not biting and unsettling, like several of the 'hipper' '60s comics, like Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl. These Jewish jokes were ones that could be repeated at any office gathering or weeknight Pan and Poker games, like the ones I recall my parents having in the mid '60s. They still have the black card table with the white leather top that was used at their gatherings back then, when albums like 'You Don't Have To Jewish' were such a unifying force.

Classic bits on these two albums, released for the first time as a double disc CD here, include 'Secret Agent James Bondtstein' and 'The Cocktail Party' which is reminiscent of 'Laugh In's' party scenes with the one liners floating in and out of martini glasses. 'The Plotnick Diamond' bit is funny too, where Mrs. Plotnick complains that her large diamond comes enshrouded with a curse...'What's the curse her friend asks, in a Yenta-like way, 'Mr. Plotnick!' is the reply. You see, these albums showcase the qualities of Jewish life we have all come to know as 'trademarks,' like: guilt, marrying a nice young doctor, eating as a remedy for anxiety, worrying too much, and of course, more guilt!

Jewish people throughout the ages have relied on humor as a survival technique, and have always been noted for their sardonic and revelatory abilities to translate 'agony' into 'ecstasy' in the form of humorous dialogue. One can see where comics like Woody Allen got a lot of his early material from gleaning the cultural mores predominant in both these albums, that show Booker and partner Foster's true genius for defining a genre through humor. The live audience present here makes the material play even more like television, helping to create a real 'visual' presence for these playets, which are both timeless and charming in their appeal.

May these hilarious records provide you and your family the same 'sitting around the hi-fi' happiness that I experienced when I first listened to them, wearing my pajamas that had all the gas station signs on them (my favorite was 'Gulf') and eating my strawberry 'Whip 'N Chill' light meringue pudding that Mom would make in those little glass dessert cups that were so evocative of the era for me. Food and humor always go well together in Jewish culture...Enjoy!

Hal Lifson









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Disc 1:

1. A Call from Long Island
2. Home from the Office
3. The Reading of the Will
4. The Diamond
5. Quickies: The Astronaut/The School/The Confession
6. The Jury
7. The Presidents
8. The Cocktail Party
9. Final Discussion
10. More Quickies: Cry for Help/Panic/Two Husbands
11. The Convicts
12. The Housewarming
13. The Luncheon
14. Still More Quickies: The Storm/The Newspaper Reporter/The Home Remedy
15. Conversation in the Hotel Lobby
16. The Agony and the Ecstacy
17. My Son, The Captain
18. Secret Agent, James Bondstein
19. Enough Already with the Quickies: Dinner/The Elevator/Classified Ad, Is
20. Goldstein
21. Would You Believe It? - Bob Booker, Keller, Sheldon
22. The Hobby - Bob Booker, Foster, George
23. My Husband, The Monster - Bob Booker, Foster, George
24. The Ballad of Irving - Bob Booker, Peppiatt, Frank
25. The Shoe Repair Shop - Bob Booker, Foster, George
26. Divorce, Kosher Style - Bob Booker, Foster, George
27. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Bob Booker, Foster, George
28. Things Might Have Been Different - Bob Booker, Arnold, Buddy
29. A Call from Greenwich Village
30. The Great Bank Robbery - Bob Booker, Foster, George
31. Discussion in the Airplane - Bob Booker, Foster, George
32. Miami Beach - Bob Booker, Foster, George
33. Schtick: The Traveler/The Panhandler/The Cemetary
34. The Kidnapping - Bob Booker, Foster, George
35. The Bar Mitzvah - Bob Booker, Foster, George
36. When You're in Love the Whole World Is Jewish - Bob Booker, Bucci, Mark

Rating: - * Great and FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!! ... You certainly do NOT have to be Jewish to enjoy this CD....Very funny, heartwarming and nostalgic....I remembered some skits from the 60's and 70's. At times we play it in the car and make our trip seem fast as we LAUGH away.... Rating: - * Wonderful Comedy Album Vol. 1 & 2 ... Waited a long time for these to be released on CD. Some of the wonderful one liners I have used in comebacks and story telling ever since I first listened to these recordings. The Ballad of Irving is a classic song which I sing to myself every once in a while and is remembered fondly by many listeners I have met over the years. Frank Gallop was the announcer for Perry Como and his voice is great to listen to. You don't have to be Jewish to love this CD. Rating: - * the world remains the same ... an oldie but still a goody after many mnany years and it epitomises new york humor re Rating: - * Think Classic Jewish Humor ... 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 Rating: - * gentile education ... I had the profound good fortune to make life long Jewish friends when I attended the University of Miami in the late 1960's. Among the treasures of their friendship was their humor. This CD replaces the LP long ago lost in moving from apartment to apartment in my youth. I feel like I've found a part of myself that was lost. I attended Sabbath Eve services with my friends and they would come to Mass with me on Sunday. Their parents would exclaim during visits to school: "Oy. It took a Gentile to get my Howie to go back to shul!" God bless Jewish humor. It keeps us HUMAN !!!! By the way, I am an ordained Catholic priest. Go figure.