Mandy Patinkin's new CD brings flood of emotions Cleveland Jewish News June 12, 1998 By S. Abrams   Well-known actor and singer Mandy Patinkin has outdone himself with a compact disc that will tug at your nostalgic heart strings with one hand while spoofing today's world with the other. His all-Yiddish CD is called MAMALOSHEN (mother-tongue). I don't understand a lot of Yiddish, but the booklet that comes with the CD is set up so that the listener can either sing along with Patinkin in the "mother tongue," follow the English transliteration with each line, or just sit back and listen to the music. What? You never heard ("Take Me Out To the Ball Game" ("Neme Mikh Mit Tsu Der Ball Geym") sung in Yiddish? You're missing plenty! Patinkin hits a home run with this rendition. Likewise for the patriotic "God Bless America" ("Got Bentsch Amerike"), which will make you stand up and cheer. A quick change of pace and Patinkin's falsetto voice sings "Maria" ("Mayn Mirl") from "West Side Story" with all the tenderness and passion that makes this song a classic. Making this album unique are the Yiddish and English transliterations. Sometimes the Yiddish version rhymes, sometimes the English version rhymes, and sometimes they both rhyme. Quite an accomplishment! Patinkin's CD opens with "Belz" ("My Little Town"). A very wise choice. I remember hearing this song in the Catskills when I was a little boy. It left the audience in tears in the '30s and it's still a "grabber" -- as they say in the music business. Patinkin sings this duet with Judy Blazer. The lengthiest song is "Papirosin" ("Cigarettes"), which describes a poor boy selling cigarettes on a cold, rainy night. "Save me from hunger now," he pleads, "or I will have to perish like a dog." Just when you are feeling sad, Patinkin livens things up by adding a song like "Hokey Pokey" to switch your mood. He begins with "Dem rekhtn fus arayn" (You put your right foot in"), and takes off from there. I don't know how the song "Iberkalifregelistishoyspialedikhtik!" (English translation, "Supercalifragilistic expialidocious" from "Mary Poppins") got into Patinkin's hit parade, but it's there. What really blew me away is Patinkin's version of "White Christmas," which changes to "Ikh Khulem Fun A Vays Nitl." He is dreaming of a "white night." There are many more songs, some of which will haunt you and some will keep you humming. Three good pictures of Patinkin are in the booklet that accompanies the CD. In his prologue, Patinkin admits he was terrified when he started this project because he knew "maybe a half-a-dozen Yiddish words." He spent several months listening to pronunciation tapes. This project became the only true professional goal he felt he ever had. Most of all, he concludes, "I want to say thank-you to my dad, who sang 'Yome, Yome' to me as a boy; to Joe Papp, who encouraged me to learn this music as a man; and to all our ancestors who have left us with the most beautiful waters to keep replenishing our souls."

Thanks to RKteachr for this article.

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