Allan Sherman

Music is cyclical. Take 1963, when Allan Sherman's song climbed all the way to #2 on the charts. What was this epic ballad? None other than:

Hello muddah, hello fadduh

Here I am at Camp Granada

Camp is very entertaining

And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining

More such hilarity follows. And yet, #2 on the charts! The whole country was singing it. Even JFK was a fan. Camp Granada was made into a board game, a book, a sitcom, a musical...

Sherman was an expert of parody songs, often injecting them with Jewish shtick. Of course, with time such songs lost all cache and became ripe for ridicule. Parody songs at top of the charts? Never again!

Until 2014, that is, when Weird Al Yankovic, who counts Sherman as an inspiration, went all the way to the top of the charts with his parody album "Mandatory Fun".

Give it another 50 years to cycle...