Peter & The Commissar

With Allan Sherman’s Warner Bros. albums currently off limits, we were combing the vaults looking for something else by Allan to license when we stumbled across this gem. Deemed by Sherman himself as "the most exciting night of my life," this 1964 performance at Tanglewood with the Boston Pops indeed may have represented the zenith of his career, as Sherman, with the help of orchestrator Jerry Fielding, entertained 13,000 fans with dead-on skewerings of sacred cows, musical and otherwise. 'Peter and the Commissar', for example, rewrites 'Peter and the Wolf' to depict the travails of a young songwriter whose work is rejected by authorities who think they know what the public wants, a theme that had resonance (and still does!) on both sides of the Iron Curtain. 'Variations on "How Dry I Am"', meanwhile, twists that familiar, four-note theme into endless permutations, and 'The End of a Symphony' beats P.D.Q. Bach to the punch by sending up the repetitious codas used by Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and other great composers. This album has never been reissued on LP or CD, and for Allan Sherman fans fixated on his more famous work, it’s likely to be a revelation. A 'Collectors’ Choice Music' exclusive!