BARUCH LEVINE and DONI GROSS have somehow managed to hit the spot again

Back to the Basics

Just when you think it’s all been done with nostalgia albums, BARUCH LEVINE and DONI GROSS have somehow managed to hit the spot again with a completely fresh nostalgic project. After two OFF THE RECORD albums packed with the warm sound of English oldies, the new Off the Record, featuring MOSHE MENDLOWITZ, is a compilation of vintage songs from five early Pirchei choirs, taking the mini-series in a new direction.

“This one comes from Baruch,” producer Doni Gross is quick to admit. “I felt that there are already so many nostalgia albums out there, but Baruch felt that we could still add something new, if we focused on a specific era and promoted the contribution of specific niche groups.”

This Pirchei focus takes the Off the Record series further back than the previous two collections, which were mostly songs of the 1980s and 1990s. Pirchei Agudas Yisrael released three albums in the mid-1960s, followed by London Pirchei in the early ’70s, along with Toronto Pirchei and Amudai Shaish, until others of the genre came along.

“I was thinking that if we don’t put these out with up-to-date arrangements, the songs will be forgotten,” Baruch says.

“Many were already forgotten,” Doni qualifies. “All but two of these songs were released before I was born.”

Well, even if not completely forgotten, most listeners today probably couldn’t identify their source. The oldest medley on the album, songs from the Pirchei Agudas Yisrael Pirchei Sings albums, include selections such as “Vehayah Bayom Hahu,” “Elokim Yisadeinu,” and “Al Zeh Hayah” (even earlier than the Yigal Calek tune on his first London Pirchim album). Younger listeners who are familiar with these seemingly ageless songs are often surprised to learn that they were Pirchei’s contribution to vintage Jewish music.

Interludes spliced between the featured songs are ageless tunes such as “Toras Hashem Temimah” and “Ashreinu Mah Tov Chelkeinu,” which seem to have been in the Jewish atmosphere forever, but were actually Pirchei releases.

“The world today barely remembers that these classic shul songs came from Pirchei. While I couldn’t see any chiddush in rerecording them, we touched on them as interludes to give credit to the era.”

Yaakov Brown, the uber-knowledgeable music collector who served as the project’s curator, sent drives full of old choir recordings to Doni and Baruch, who sifted through them and created a spreadsheet of all the choirs and their songs. They considered some other groups, such as Gateshead Boys Choir, Camp Sdei Chemed, and Pirchei Johannesburg, before settling on five medleys: London School of Jewish Song, Pirchei Toronto, Pirchei Agudas Yisrael, Amudai Shaish, and Tzlil Vezemer (which was a bit later than the others, in the mid 1980s).

The songs had to be both fairly well known and not too complicated. “This format doesn’t work if the material is too obscure,” Baruch explains. “At the very least, every third song has to be something that almost everyone can recall from somewhere. We also couldn’t include the more complex pieces, because they don’t work in medleys but need their own space.”

For example, they originally recorded “Mimkomcha” from the 1966 Pirchei Eiliecha album — it’s still sung in shuls on Shabbos morning — but then decided to cut it out in the end because of the amount of space it would take up. “Another thing to consider,” says Baruch, “is that slow songs age better than fast songs. The slow songs, with beautiful new music, will definitely still be appreciated today, but with the fast ones you might be taking a gamble.”

While searching for songs for the album, Baruch and Doni checked out Nostalgia, an album released by Moshe Mendlowitz in 2015. “We appreciated the way Moshe sang and connected with these songs, and so we reached out to see if he would consider being featured as a guest artist on one of the medleys,” Doni relates. “When he came to the studio and started singing, I was struck by the way both voices blended with one another. ‘I don’t think we need to look any further!’ I told Baruch. Moshe agreed to collaborate on the entire album and the feedback has been tremendous.”

As well as pulling the older generation back into music — they quickly sold out of USBs in Lakewood — the Off the Record team hopes to be a window for a new generation to enjoy these vintage hits.

Story Behind the Song

Don’t Just Survive, but Thrive

No there’s nothing holding you back / When everything life brings just pushes you forward…/ Why let life bring you down if it can lift you even higher?/ Why survive, if you can thrive?

If anyone can sing these lines, it’s YOSSI HECHT, a young man whose head is held up high as he rides the challenge of physical disability in his early twenties. The song, NOTHING HOLDING YOU BACK, produced by Doni Gross and sung by Benny Friedman with Yossi Hecht, is not just about accepting pain and challenge with full faith, but about letting those challenges propel you to new heights, push you to growth and transformation, explains composer Chayala Neuhaus.

“It’s a very upbeat song, expressing that wave of energy when you know that in the challenge, Hashem has given you an opportunity to fly,” Chayala says. “The lines themselves seem to be pumping and pushing you forward. It’s a perfect song for Yossi, who spreads joy and inspiration and gratitude to Hashem for the workings of our bodies. It’s like he is energized by his challenges, determined to be on his adaptive bike on the streets of Astoria, his hands propelling him forward.”

Like the many Yidden who have reached out from the depths of their own pain to open organizations that help Klal Yisrael, or who have used the sensitivity they’ve achieved through their challenges to smooth other people’s paths, the song highlights growth through the tough trials of life.

The lyrics were written some months ago and took its time to emerge as an upbeat, engaging music video featuring Benny Friedman alongside Yossi, produced by Motti Berkowitz. Yet Chayala eventually saw personal Hashgachah in the timing of the release.

“The song came out on the day my mother got up from shivah for my grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor. When I revisited the words of the song, my grandmother’s life story was staring at me — “Why survive if you can thrive? And let your story keep inspiring….” She endured the war as a teenager, and she did not just survive but thrived, taking the worst of circumstances as a cue to propel herself forward and build. Rather than just making it through, my grandmother picked herself up with renewed energy, came to America, adapted to a foreign country, built a beautiful life for her family and left a legacy of resilience and enduring faith.

Last-Minute Decisions

When we were finishing up my debut Zman album, we had 12 original songs ready to go, but there was another song called “Simchas” — a wedding dance song — that I really liked. It was hard to decide what to do. It was a great song, but maybe 13 new tracks would be overkill. L’maaseh, we decided to put it on — it’s Track 11 — and I guess it wasn’t too much because I’ve gotten great feedback.

—Gershi Uri

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1044)