“Shine on, shine on, Harvey Bloom up in the sky,
You have been in orbit since January, February, June and July,
Don’t come back too soon, we rented out your room,
So shine on, shine on Harvey Bloom--up there on the moon.”
On “Pop Hates the Beatles”, Sherman gets topical and sings with some bitterness about the changing times (Sherman’s failure to ascend the charts as he once did had a lot to do with the emergence of the Fab Four).
“Grow Mrs. Goldfarb”, is a somewhat disturbing little song with an uncharacteristic touch of cruelness thrown into the mix. To the tune of “Glow Worm” Sherman sings glibly about Mrs. Goldfarb's relentless eating and growing girth:
“When you're in department stores,
Don't use revolving doors,
You might get stuck, Dear.
When you use the telephone,
Go in the booth alone,
And lots of luck, Dear.”
The album peaked at number thirty-two on the charts. It was a decent offering, which contained a few shining moments. But the quality was not consistent and Sherman had done better.
During his career, Allan Sherman released a total of eight albums and went on to write a Broadway show and two books. He died at age 47 in 1973-a combination of weight gain and emphysema contributing to his demise.
If you know the name Allan Sherman from “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” and enjoy the humor of that song, pick up those first two My Son releases before going on to the rest. You’ll see why Sherman’s talent as a song parodist has stood the test of time.
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