The backstories of those favorite albums that still frame our memories

“We never expected it to take off like that”

Uncle Moishy album series

DING (DOVID NACHMAN GOLDING) shares the backstory

HOW THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT DEVELOPED

It was 1978 when Suki and I spent a Shabbos in Florida at an NCSY shabbaton and first met Zale Newman, who asked us if we’d be interested in producing a children’s record.

Zale then got engaged and married, and six months later, we heard from him again. What happened was that he asked his wife what she thought they should do with their wedding money, and she replied, “Give a little tzedakah.” He took that line, sat down, and wrote an entire song, tune and lyrics. It became the first Uncle Moishy song, and the others came quickly. Some of the tunes were children’s songs or popular tunes from other sources, while others were new compositions.

Moishe Tanenbaum was the singing voice of Uncle Moishy, while Zale was the talking voice. The name Uncle Moishy was actually suggested by the Chabad shaliach in Toronto, where Zale and Moishe lived.

In 1990, it was time to move ahead with a video. I called up Moishe Tanenbaum and we met at the heliport near the West Side Highway. I rented a helicopter, and that was the first video scene of Uncle Moishy.

OUR FIRST CONCERT

The first Uncle Moishy concert was in FDR High School in Brooklyn, in around 1982. The first out-of-town concerts were in Detroit and Chicago, followed by almost every city in the US where Jews live. Soon we were all over Canada, including Halifax and Nova Scotia, and around the world in Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Israel. This was the 1980s, and out-of-town shows sometimes had audiences two-thirds of whom were not even shomrei Shabbos.

Usually, five people traveled: Moishe Tanenbaum, myself, the keyboard player, the drummer, and Zale Newman. Later, we were joined by Mordechai Antebi and Cousin Nachum as the Mitzvah Men.

SURPRISES ALONG THE WAY

We weren’t expecting it to take off like it did, but it really made the rounds, and became a magnet for special needs children, too. We held concerts, and although we were initially expecting a more yeshivah-type crowd, Uncle Moishy had taken off tremendously among all stripes of frum Jews, from kippah serugah to black hat.

MY MOST MEANINGFUL FEEDBACK

Uncle Moishy turned out to be a magnet for special children and sick children. We went to visit many children who were hospitalized, and Moishe would sing their favorite songs and cheer them up. We once got a letter from a family whose child had passed away. They had engraved on the tombstone “Don’t walk in front of me I may not follow...”

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE

The “Pizza Song,” but I am definitely not impartial, because I wrote it, although I didn’t realize its potential right away. I sang the tune to Suki, who told me it was great and had to go on an album. Like many Uncle Moishy songs, that one started with the tune. Sometimes we’d even record the music and only then decide on the lyrics.

WHAT I WISH I COULD CHANGE OR TAKE BACK

Nothing I want to take back, really. We were very careful with the content and the messages we were putting out. On the first few albums, we were new to it all, but after that we were concerned about potential mistakes. We always researched and checked any sh’eilos that came up. On Uncle Moishy II, we had a brachos song, with lyrics about five food brachos. When we recorded, someone in the studio commented that we had missed one. I went to Rav Belsky, who asked, “Which brachah did you leave out?”

“Borei Peri Ha’adamah,” I said.

“How do you think Ha’adamah is going to feel?” he asked.

For a moment, I thought the Rav was joking, but actually, he wasn’t.

“You gotta do it over,” he said. And that was that. We wrote another verse, and rerecorded the song.

A FUNNY STUDIO MOMENT

After the first three volumes, we came up with the idea of putting more comedy onto the albums. Our engineer was the incredibly talented Larry Gates a”h, and he did the talking comedy, those voices like Professor Tzufloigen and Happy the Clown. It wasn’t even scripted — we would just finish recording the song and he would get up and ad-lib all these great lines. I particularly remember how funny he was on Uncle Moishy Volume V, when he was acting as Benjy, whose room kept getting messier and messier until he didn’t know where the door was.

THE BEST GUEST PERFORMANCE

The song “Let’s Go to Shul” was sung in Yiddish, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Russian. We brought in Yaakov Gade to sing the French and Spanish versions.

MY FAVORITE SONGS

“Hey Dum Diddly Dum,” “Torah, Torah, Torah, Tzivah Lanu Moshe,” “Shabbos is Coming,” and “Don’t Walk in Front of Me” are special. After those, I’d say the “Hachnassas Orchim” and “Hashavas Aveidah” songs.

THE MOST MEMORABLE LINE

“Shabbos is Coming (we’re so happy),” to the tune of “Yiddelach Shrei Shabbos” has been used at almost every concert throughout the years. “Hashem is Here, Hashem is There” was also huge, but for the sake of accuracy, its first appearance was not on an Uncle Moishy recording. The lyrics are actually Yossi Goldstein’s (aka Uncle Yossi), and he sang it before we did.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 931)