Reply To: Country Yossi versus Abie Rottenberg versus?

(Lenny Solomon is the writer/singer of Shlock Rock.)

I guess I’d better explain that one a little more.

I’m well aware of what the two are best known for, but what I mean is, who is better at the other’s “primary” genre, demonstrating their greater versatility?

Has anyone written an ode to the melamed better than this?

(As with most good songs, it sounds better in the ear.)

There’s a very special man

In a very special place

There’s a twinkle in his eye

And a smile upon his face

He’s your rebbi / He’s your rebbi

He’s your rebbi / He’s your rebbi

He’s / your / friend.

I know CY much more than I do AR, but check out any song in this list for his emotional efforts:

Rabbi Black, Big Bad Moish (and sort of The Rabbi)

^Dramatic songs from Wanted.

Nebich of the Shteeble, [Oh, My Yerushalayim], Shlomo, Make-Believe (and Ahvaira)

^Emotional songs from Strike Again.

Shabbos Wine, Tick-Tock (Al Tomar)

^Emotional, from Still On the Loose.

Deaf Man in the Shteeble, Phantom of the Shteeble

^from Captured.

I Will Follow Him, The Tiny Old Shteeble, and Mitzvah Tantz (The Wedding’s Over)

^from Break Out.

I Am the Flower, Rav Shmuel and the Myrtle Twig, Good Morning Klal Yisroel, and Elan Elan

^All from Ride Again!

That’s 24 out of 64 songs by “The Shteeble-Hoppers”. So much

for his being a pure comedian.

Then there’s “These I Remember,” with only 1 in ten songs showing a hint of humor, and it’s still serious (“My Yetzer Hura Says”).