A
lthough today’s wedding music is frequently about the latest and greatest hits, sometimes the band segues into a familiar intro as guests smile at the sound of a beloved classic. Which gracefully aged songs do you still love to perform at weddings?
Menachem Herman (Guitarist and Band Leader)
We still find ourselves playing the classic “Meheira, Meheira” by Shlomo Carlebach, time and time again.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 754)
A
lthough today’s wedding music is frequently about the latest and greatest hits, sometimes the band segues into a familiar intro as guests smile at the sound of a beloved classic. Which gracefully aged songs do you still love to perform at weddings?
Yisroel Lamm (Aaron Teitelbaum Productions)
The Alter Rebbe’s niggun “Arba Bavos,” played only at weddings and other specific occasions, is requested at some weddings, and is clearly one of the holiest of niggunim. Playing it is certainly an opportunity.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 754)
A
lthough today’s wedding music is frequently about the latest and greatest hits, sometimes the band segues into a familiar intro as guests smile at the sound of a beloved classic. Which gracefully aged songs do you still love to perform at weddings?
Meir Adler (Musician)
One fast older song that I like is “Yehei raavah kadamach desiftach liba’i be’Oraisa” — it’s a very energetic and very hartzige way to conclude a dance set. Another still-goodie is “Laasos Nachas Ruach.” As for slow songs, people still always enjoy hearing the Yiddish classic “Tiereh Yidden” with the refrain “Nor emunah, nor emunah in Borei Kol Olamim.”
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 754)
A
lthough today’s wedding music is frequently about the latest and greatest hits, sometimes the band segues into a familiar intro as guests smile at the sound of a beloved classic. Which gracefully aged songs do you still love to perform at weddings?
Mendy Hershkowitz (Sababa Band)
I wouldn’t call it an “oldie,” but I still like to play “Yehi Hachodesh Hazeh” — the one sung by Dedi [on his Omnom album]. And MBD’s “Emes Atah Hu Rishon,” always has great energy.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 754)
T
he release of the latest SIMCHAS HACHAIM album before Purim has become an annual tradition, now in its 8th year. This year’s CD, with quirky album art based on Yitzchok Moully’s Orange Socks painting, was released the week of Rosh Chodesh Adar II.
“I get so excited about this entire project,” says producer AVRUMI BERKO, “but it’s challenging, because I can add the latest hit songs up to days before the album is printed. Selecting another song requires writing more arrangements, getting the instruments recorded, and of course, choir as well.”
Simchas Hachaim has an eclectic feel, with older heimishe songs, or sometimes fragments of songs, played in medley alongside new hits — but the tone is always leibedig. One first-time release is “Yishtabach,” which Berko composed for his own brother’s wedding. It wasn’t long before others requested he play it at their weddings too. Another popular segment is “Btach Bashem.” Chaim Meir Erps (known as C.M.E.) added catchy Yiddish lyrics to his “Trust in Me” song, which was released as a single in December. The words “Gleib in Mir, gleib in Mir, vest du zehn on a shiur nissim veniflaos” (Trust in Me and you will see many wonders) is appropriate for this time, and for always, all year-round.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 754)
“W
hich song has vocal arrangements that you consider unusually special?”
What comes to mind is “Shaarei D’mo’os,” from Avraham Fried’s album Bring the House Down. I had the honor of arranging and recording the choir in my own ZemiroStudio in Monsey. Being that the song has a very special, kind of fragile chazzanus part, Avremel complimented me more than once on how the choirs and arrangements literally changed and flavored the entire song.
—Yoily Polatseck, Zemiros Choir
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 753)
“I
f my work changes just one person’s life, it’s already worth it,” seems to be a motto of so many artists out there. Yet for songwriters and composers who don’t perform their own material, the ripple effect of their inspiration is significantly further from their range of vision.
Chayala Neuhaus’s uplifting song “Im Atem Meshamrim Neiros shel Shabbos” — released on the Miracles album in 2015, then subsequently as a music video by Dovid Pearlman — was actually written a decade ago, when Chaya was a high school senior. The song, with its soaring English lyrics, was widely sung in girls’ camps, schools, and shabbatons, but the feedback the composer valued most was when a lady contacted her to say that she had divorced and her children were living with her irreligious ex-spouse. Every Friday, the woman would call them and together, they sang this song — taking them back to the warm camp Shabbos memories of girls singing with assurance and faith.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 753)
