29 Facts About Allan Sherman

Allan Sherman's biggest hit was "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", a comic song in which a boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours.

Allan Sherman's parents divorced when he was seven, and he adopted his mother's maiden name.

Allan Sherman later attended the University of Illinois, where he earned mostly "C" grades and contributed a humor column to The Daily Illini, the college newspaper.

Allan Sherman was expelled for breaking into the Sigma Delta Tau sorority house with his girlfriend and future wife, Dolores "Dee" Chackes.

Allan Sherman devised a game show with comedy writer Howard Merrill he intended to call I Know a Secret.

Allan Sherman was always kind and understanding to those who worked for him.

Allan Sherman once released 100 rabbits onstage as an Easter surprise for the Madison Square Boys Club, whose members were seated in the studio.

The single sold poorly and when Allan Sherman wrote his autobiography, he did not mention it.

Allan Sherman lived in the Brentwood section of West Los Angeles next door to Harpo Marx, who invited him to perform his song parodies at parties attended by Marx's show-biz friends.

Allan Sherman wrote his parody lyrics in collaboration with Lou Busch.

However, Allan Sherman had trouble in getting permission to record for profit from some well-known composers and lyricists, who did not tolerate parodies or satires of their melodies and lyrics, including Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Ira Gershwin, Meredith Willson, Alan Jay Lerner, and Frederick Loewe, as well as the estates of Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Kurt Weill, George Gershwin and Bertolt Brecht, which prevented him from releasing parodies or satires of their songs.

Allan Sherman then wrote his own song parodies of My Fair Lady, which appeared as a bootleg recording in 1964, and were officially released in 2005 on My Son, the Box.

Two other Allan Sherman singles charted in the lower regions of the Billboard 100: an updated "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh", and "The Drinking Man's Diet".

The songs on Sherman's next album My Name Is Allan were thematically connected: except for a couple of original novelty songs with music by Sherman and Busch, all the songs on the album are parodies of songs that had won, or were nominated for, the Academy Award for Best Song.

Allan Sherman parodied Gilbert and Sullivan's "Titwillow" from The Mikado, in the song "The Bronx Bird-Watcher", as well as several other Gilbert and Sullivan songs.

In 1965, Allan Sherman published an autobiography, A Gift of Laughter, and, for a short period at least, he was culturally ubiquitous.

Allan Sherman sang on and guest-hosted The Tonight Show, was involved in the production of Bill Cosby's first three albums, appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and sang "The Dropouts' March" on the March 6,1964, edition of the NBC satirical program That Was The Week That Was.

Also in 1964, Allan Sherman narrated his own version of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf in a live concert at Tanglewood with the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler.

Allan Sherman was often tapped to produce specialty song parodies for corporations.

Allan Sherman created a group of eight "public education" radio spots for Encron carpet fibers, singing their praises to the tunes of old public-domain songs.

On November 13,1965, Allan Sherman made a rare primetime television acting appearance in "The Sheriff of Fetterman's Crossing," an episode of Rod Serling's short-lived Western series The Loner.

Allan Sherman played Walton Peterson Tetley, a local schnook who went off to war and rose to regiment cook before returning home a hero, thanks to tall tales and yarn-spinning.

Allan Sherman did a television series in Melbourne, Victoria, for a live audience.

In 1971, Allan Sherman was the voice of Dr Seuss's The Cat in the Hat for the animated television special.

Allan Sherman reprised the role for Dr Seuss on the Loose, his last project before his death.

Allan Sherman died while entertaining his friends during the night of November 20,1973, at his home in Los Angeles, California, ten days shy of his 49th birthday.

Allan Sherman is entombed in Culver City, California's Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery.

Allan Sherman was the inspiration for a new generation of developing parodists such as "Weird Al" Yankovic, who pays homage to Allan Sherman on the cover of his first LP.

Allan Sherman's hit song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" has been translated into other languages.