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s we move through the ordinary and special events of our days, there always seems to be a melody playing in the background. Over the years, those tunes become forever connected to a moment or mood.

We asked veteran music producer Sheya Mendlowitz: Which songs have become the soundtrack of your life? 

An English song that strikes a special chord

I’m always moved by “Hineni,” the title song from MBD’s first album back in 1974. The lyrics were originally written for Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis’s Hineni organization. I remember the first time I heard it, I was in the middle of reading Diary of Anne Frank for school, and the song seemed to form a background score to my experience of that book: “So my brother, put your faith in the above; Say hineni, I am ready to serve You with love… our Father Abraham was called by G-d to sacrifice his son… now what will become of our fathers’ devotion if we won’t say hineni… The cries they began will never cease; the words they cried shook the heavens above, they said hineni we are here with love…”

My favorite Yiddish song

One of them is “Eizehu Mekoman shel Zevachim,” a song about our longing for the avodah of the Beis Hamikdash, expressed in the daily recital of korbanos. It’s a truly heilige niggun, I believe also written by Reb Yossele Mandelbaum. Mordche sang this one too, on his album The Yiddish Collection. [Many people are familiar with the niggun, as it’s been adapted to other songs as well — Bnei Heichalah, for example, which is sung at Seudah Shlishis.–Ed.] Another one is “A Gutte Voch,” a Yomtov Ehrlich ballad-style song which my father a”h taught me, and which I recorded with Avraham Fried on his Melave Malka album.

The song I can’t sing unless others join in 

“Kah Echsof,” Rebbe Aharon of Karlin’s masterpiece Leil Shabbos zemer. I guess one could sing it alone, but its magnificence seems to demand a whole group, and it sounds so much better that way.

My favorite Yom Tov niggun

There’s a niggun which my father a”h always sang on the Shalosh Regalim, a beautiful happy song, full of Yom Tov spirit, which I think was composed by Chazzan Yossele Mandelbaum, the Bobover baal menagen. Mordche sang it to Kah Keili on the Yerushalayim Our Home album. We always sing that at our Yom Tov table, and besides being sung for Kah Keili, it’s also often used in shuls for an unhurried Keil Adon or Lecha Dodi.

If I could take only one album along with me on a long trip, I’d pick

The Philharmonic Experience by Yisroel Lamm. It was historic and trendsetting, the first album to have a symphony orchestra playing Jewish classical music.

What I love to sing at the Shabbos table

Both the Bobov and Spinka “Kah Ribon” niggunim are masterpieces. And you can’t beat the classic “Me-ein olam habah, me-ein olam habah, me-ein olam habah yom Shabbos menuchah”

A song that gives me chizuk

The lyrics to the Yiddish song “Tatenyu,” which Avraham Fried wrote and sang on Forever One: “A Tatte bist du, guhr a getrier (You are a loyal Father, Your love for us cannot be measured, and furthermore, says the heilige Baal Shem, every Yid is Your only son.”) It’s a real masterpiece.

The song that takes me back to yeshivah days

The entire Something Yeshivish album, which Moshe Laufer and I put out, is a collection of songs from back in my yeshivah days. I guess a favorite would be the classic “Kad Yasvin Yisrael.”

The song that takes me back to my childhood

“Racheim Bechasdecha.” This slow, soulful song came out during the 60's on an early Pirchei record titled Yibaneh Hamikdash (long before MBD and Fried sang it as a duet on MBD and Friends), but I have a feeling that it was even older than that. It takes me back to a time when things were simpler and purer than today.

A kumzitz song that really talks to me

“Shifchi Kamayim Libeich” by Shlomo Carlebach

My favorite Kedushah niggun

The famous “Mimkomcha,” which Reb David Werdyger sang on the second Melitzer album, a Melitzer Oneg Shabbos. It’s used all over for Kol Mekadesh Shevii and sometimes other zemiros. It absolutely puts me in the Shabbos mood.

The song that made me want to go look up a pasuk

From time to time I come across songs that are so deep, I just need to know where the words were from and their full meaning. The powerful Skulener niggunim are like that. I am especially drawn to “Zechor Davar Le’avdecha” and “Yivodah Bagoyim.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 760)