The problem was that the original recording reels didn’t exist — at least no one could find them

ONEof the earliest recordings of Avraham Fried singing is on the first Camp Sdei Chemed album, Leshanah Haba’ah, when he was the child soloist Avromi Friedman on the song “Venikeisi,” composed by Reb Eli Teitelbaum and Yisroel Lamm. When Sheya Mendlowitz, the producer of Fried’s first seven solo albums, decided to rerecord “Venikeisi” in 1985 on the Goodbye Golus album, he wanted to embed those original vocals into the adult voice of Avraham Fried. The problem was that the original recording reels didn’t exist — at least no one could find them.

Not one to give up on a creative idea, Sheya used the album itself instead. “I found a record without any scratches and took it along with me to Eretz Yisrael, where we were recording all the music for Goodbye Golus. We actually played the record in the studio, recording it on two tracks out of the twenty-four recording tracks we were using at the time, and the musicians — guitar, bass, and flute — played along, one beat later. After Avremel’s solo finished, we turned it off and continued on with the new music.”

—Sheya Mendlowitz

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 945)