You Don't Have to Be Jewish

You Don't Have to be Jewish is a 1965 comedy album written by Bob Booker and George Foster, the team behind the 1962 comedy album The First Family.William D. Laffler. "What's new in records: famed Tijuana Brass given 'Jewish' takeoff" (review of Al Tijuana and His Jewish Brass), Simpson's Leader-Times, October 8, 1966, page 1, 4 TV section: under the direction of Bob Booker and George Foster, the pair responsible for the success of the phenomenal "First Family" and "You Don't have to be Jewish" albums.

Production The album features Lou Jacobi, Betty Walker, Jack Gilford, Joe Silver, Jackie Kannon, Bob McFadden, Frank Gallop, and Arlene Golonka,Marvin Randolph. "'Jewish' sketch made in '65, 'Tiger Rag' in 1918," Sun-Sentinel, October 6, 1996, page 3F. in a variety of roles, mostly Jewish, performing a mixture of jokes and comedy sketches. The album was recorded with a live audience, as the cast performed a script, like a radio play.

Reception The album was highly successful, with syndicated columnist Walter Winchell calling the album "the No. 1 seller in Suburbia" and noting that as a popular gift "it has replaced the fountain pen at Bar Mitzvahs."Walter Winchell. "Walter Winchell in New York," High Point Enterprise, October 22, 1965, page 7A.

Sequel A sequel, When You're in Love, the Whole World is Jewish, largely reunited the original cast but replaced the unavailable Golonka with her roommate, Valerie Harper, who was not herself Jewish but frequently played Jewish characters.

Name "You Don't Have to be Jewish to love Levy's" was an advertising campaign for Levy's rye bread that began in 1961 and ran through the 1970s.

Track listing

References