“When I wrote ‘Keitzad Merakdim’ in honor of my own chasunah a few decades ago [the one that goes ‘Kei-ei-tzad mera-a-akdim li-ifnei hakallah….dai dai lai lai lai lai lai lai…’], I guess I thought it was a good song, but I didn’t know it would become a classic,” says veteran composer and arranger Moshe Laufer. “Leibele Haschel a”h, my good friend, sang it at my wedding, but at the time we had no idea how popular it would become, so we put it in the middle of his Ad Bely Dei album [Leibele’s second album] instead of as the lead. A year later, I couldn’t believe it was all over the world, performed at every wedding.”
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 750)