You Don't Have to Be Jewish

You Don't Have to Be Jewish
Compilation album
Released 1965
Genre Comedy
Producer Bob Booker
George Foster

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.[1] The album features Lou Jacobi, Betty Walker, Jack Gilford, Joe Silver, Jackie Kannon, Bob McFadden, Frank Gallop, and Arlene Golonka,[2] in a variety of roles, mostly Jewish, performing a mixture of jokes and comedy sketches. 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."[3] A sequel, When You're in Love, the Whole World is Jewish, largely reunited the original cast but replaced the unavailable Golonka with her friend Valerie Harper.

References

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ Marvin Randolph. "'Jewish' sketch made in '65, 'Tiger Rag' in 1918," Sun-Sentinel, October 6, 1996, page 3F.
  3. ↑ Walter Winchell. "Walter Winchell in New York," High Point Enterprise, October 22, 1965, page 7A.