Blobipedia

Alright already.... One A. Harrelson in a recent comment asked if Allan Sherman was a Jew. If you read the comments you know that I replied in an unusually abrupt and testy fashion. I apologize for not heeding my own mission statement (something about being a friggin' encyclopedia if I remember correctly) and will now gladly answer the question.

Allan Sherman was a singer/songwriter/comedian who made it big in the early 60's as a parodist. His most successful LP's were "My Son the Folk Singer" and later "My Son the Nut" and it's #1 hit song: "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh". His work layed the foundation for Weird Al Yankovic's career but his fame was short lived and he became increasingly embittered. In the late 60's he dropped out of view and converted from Judaism to Islam using the name Tariq al Tariq thereby laying the foundation for Cat Steven's career. His conversion and name change were never accepted by his parents and Sherman publicly mocked this in his final album. The attempted comeback was a dismal failure in the West and he died impoverished, one-handed (the result of a work related accident) and alone in 1973.