Every artist wants his album to be as perfect as can be, but sometimes he has to take a gamble. Is the song he’s deliberating over going to soar or flop? Is the intro going to become a classic or a sleeper? How do these entertainers know they’ve made the right choice?

Naftali Schnitzler — “Great Number, Wrong Accent”

We were working on Arele Samet’s album recently, and one of the selections we were planning to use was a great song he had recorded as a single for someone’s wedding, a beautiful song that was never released to the public. At the last minute we withdrew it and used another song. Why? Because it was recorded in a litvish pronunciation and here in the US there is a large audience more comfortable with a chassidish pronunciation. I still hope it will come out as a single.

 (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 729)