Fifty years ago, a perfectly lovely piece of classic music--Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours--was altered forever by the addition of lyrics… taken from a whiny kid's letter home from summer camp.

Yes, 2013 marks the "Goldeneh" anniversary of Allan Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah," here performed by Jewish singer John "Bowzer" Bauman of Sha Na Na on that band's show.

To mark this auspicious anniversary, Mark Cohen has written the first authoritative biography of the parodist: Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman. It contains many photos and lyrics. Cohen will discuss the book at Max and Benny's Deli in Northbrook on May 27.

The book, like its subject, is both hefty and hilarious. One of its main features is a complete list of Sherman's almost-lost work Goldeneh Moments from Broadway, which Sherman said answered the burning question: "What would have happened, how would it have been, if all of the great Broadway hits of the great Broadway shows had been written by Jewish people?"

"Sherman became a star in 1962 with the Jewish song parody album, My Son, The Folk Singer," Cohen retells. "Then came My Son, The Celebrity and My Son, The Nut. All three albums went gold, sparked a national concert tour and landed him television appearances that brought his comedy to millions."

American Jewish parody songs were at least as old as Yiddish theater, vaudeville or Mickey Katz. But Sherman had a much wider audience. He performed on TV, even with some of the major stars of the day, like Dean Martin and Vic Damone. Hello Muddah won a Grammy and spun off a board game.

Sherman's lyrics were very Jewish indeed. They referred to Jewish holidays and history and they used Yiddish words and accents. But mostly, they were commentary on suburban Jewish life in midcentury America. Sherman even parodied a well-known, perhaps the best-known, Jewish song of all.

Since then, there have been other Jewish song parodists, like Tom Lehrer, whose audience remains somewhat limited… and of course Weird Al Yankovic, who is extremely popular, just not Jewish. Even Adam Sandler has only come across with that one Chanukah song that crossed into the mainstream (even if he does have three versions of it by this point).

And now we have Andy Samberg, who is Jewish, and popular. But his material is decidedly not. Oh, and Sean "Jewmongous" Altman, who is Jewish, and whose material also is… but who has not gotten famous yet (but should be!).

Which leaves us with only Allan Sherman as the one musical comedian in American history who was proudly Jewish in his subject matter and widely popular.

Also, popular widely.

Carla Gordon and Jan Slavin will perform works by some great Jewish women songwriters at Davenport's Cabaret at 7 p.m. on April 21 and 28.  Their show is called The Mavenettes.

Which is as good an excuse as any to honor some of the great American Jewish women songwriters altogether. Of course, Jewish women have been writing songs since Miriam and Deborah, but we're talking about Jewish women who wrote the songs you'd hear on the radio, on your headset, or in a theater.

Many of these artists have won Oscars, Emmys, and of course Tonys and Grammys for their work. Many are in the Songwriters, Rock and Roll, or other halls of fame. And of course they have racked up gold and platinum records by the dozen.

But their names are linked to their stories, so let's just talk about some of their best-known songs. After all, their works speak (sing?) for themselves. So here -- in somewhat chronological order -- are my picks for the 20 best American Jewish women songwriters. Who are also, as you'll see, some of the best American songwriters altogether:

1. Dorothy Fields: "Big Spender," "I'm in the Mood for Love," "If My Friends Could See Me Now," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "Pick Yourself Up," and "The Way You Look Tonight."

2. Sylvia Fine: Songs for the movies of her husband, Danny Kaye, including The Court Jester, The Inspector General, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and The Five Pennies.

3. Betty Comden: The stage musicals On The Town, Subways Are for Sleeping, Peter Pan, and A Doll's Life. The film musicals Singin' In The Rain, and The Band Wagon. Songs from these include: "The Party's Over," "New York, New York," and "Lonely Town."

4. Carolyn Leigh: Songs from many musicals, including: "The Best is Yet to Come," "Young at Heart," "Firefly," "Witchcraft," "I Gotta Crow," "I Walk a Little Faster," "Hey, Look Me Over," and "A Doodlin' Song."

5. Mary Rodgers:  Once Upon a Mattress, Working, The Madwoman of Central Park West and some of Free to Be... You and Me.

6. Ann Ronell: "Who's Afraid Of the Big Bad Wolf?" "Willow Weep For Me," "Rain On The Roof," and the musicals Count Me In, Champagne Waltz, The Story of G. I. Joe, One Touch of Venus, plus Love Happy for the Marx Brothers.

7. Ellie Greenwich: "(And) Then He Kissed Me," "Be My Baby," "Chapel of Love," "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," "I Can Hear Music," "Leader of the Pack," "Look of Love," and "River Deep, Mountain High."

8. Cynthia Weil: "Blame It on the Bossa Nova," "Saturday Night At The Movies," "You're My Soul and Inspiration," "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," "If Ever You're in My Arms Again," "Just Once," "Looking Through the Eyes of Love"… and "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail.

9. Carole Bayer Sager: "Don't Cry Out Loud," "Everything Old is New Again," "Groovy Kind of Love," "Heartbreaker," "Heartlight," "It's My Turn," "That's What Friends Are For," and the movie tracks "Best That You Can Do" And "Nobody Does It Better."

10. Carole King: "It's Going to Take Some Time," "Been to Canaan, "Jazz Man, "Loco Motion, "One Fine Day," "Pleasant Valley Sunday," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Up on the Roof," and "You Light up My Life," plus of course "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," "You've Got a Friend," "A Natural Woman," and the rest of the amazing Tapestry album.

11. Janis Ian: "At Seventeen," "Society's Child," "Jesse," "Amsterdam," "God & The FBI," "Here Comes the Night (Theme From The Bell Jar)," and both "Memphis" featuring Willie Nelson and "Paris in Your Eyes" featuring Dolly Parton.

12. Laura Nyro: "And When I Die," "Eli's Comin', "Stoned Soul Picnic," "Stoney End," "Wedding Bell Blues," "Billy's Blues," and "New York Tendaberry."

13. Carly Simon: "Anticipation," "Attitude Dancing," "Do the Walls Come Down," "Haven't Got Time for the Pain," It Happens Every Day," "The Right Thing to Do," "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be," "You Belong to Me," and of course, "You're So Vain," plus the movie tracks "Coming Around Again" And "Let the River Run."

14. Marilyn Bergman: Songs from the movies Tootsie, The Thomas Crown Affair, Same Time, Next Year, A Star is Born, Ode to Billy Joe, Major League, Micki & Maude, Never Say Never Again, Author! Author!... and of course, The Way We Were and Yentl.

15. Melissa Manchester: "Midnight Blue," "Whenever I Call You Friend," and her Grammy-winner, "You Should Hear How She Talks About You."

16. Lynn Ahrens: Lyrics to Once on This Island, My Favorite Year, A Christmas Carol, Ragtime, Seussical, A Man of No Importance , and Rocky… plus "Interplanet Janet," "The Preamble,"  "A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing," and many others for Schoolhouse Rock!

17. Jullie Gold: "From a Distance," and also "Heaven," "Southbound Train," "Good Night New York," "Mountain of Sorrow," "Thanks to You," and "Dream Loud."

18. Diane Warren: "How Can We Be Lovers (If We Can't Be Friends)," "How Do I Live," "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing," "I Get Weak," "If I Could Turn Back Time," "Rhythm Of The Night," "Set The Night To Music," "Solitaire," "If You Asked Me To," "Don't Turn Around," "Time, Love and Tenderness," and "Unbreak My Heart."

19. Lisa Lambert: The Drowsy Chaperone.

20. Lucy Kaplansky: Well, you probably don't know her songs, because she's a folksinger-songwriter. But if you like her former duo partner, Shawn Colvin, you'll love Kaplansky's songs, too.

Ever since it was possible to write songs professionally, Jewish women have been doing exactly that. From Tin Pan Alley to The Brill Building, from Broadway to Hollywood, from Greenwich Village to Nashville—not a minute goes by without their songs being shared and enjoyed by millions of people around the world. Miriam and Deborah would be proud.

How many songs are there in the Haggadah? One website I found lists 35. That might not even be a complete list! Almost every portion of the Haggadah, it seems, can be sung.

There are, of course, many melodies that could be applied to these songs; I have a CD with 20 tunes for "Chad Gadya" alone, from all over the world.

Many passages, it seems, many of us sing: The Kiddush, The Four Questions (Ma Nishtanah) and "Dayenu." Later, The Grace After Meals (aka "bentching"), the songs embedded in The Hallel, and "L'Shannah HaBa'ah."

The last chapter of the Haggadah, Nirtzah, is entirely a song cycle: "Ki Lo Na'eh," "Adir Hu," "Echad Mi Yode'ah/Who Knows One" and the grand finale, "Chad Gadya." Perhaps some of the blessings, such as over the karpas and matzah, are sung as well, and the Ten Plagues are often chanted in a sing-song manner.

Even after all of these, however, there are yet more songs, more passages that can be sung. One of my favorites, however, is not even in many Haggadot. Or if it is, it is considered a Table of Contents and not a song. This is the song of the steps to the Seder itself: "Kadesh, Urchatz" etc. (These women perform it a bit fast for my taste, but I like the gestures.) The melody, taken alone, is a lovely lullaby (just focus on the piano, not the over-loud drums, in this clip).

Another passage that can be sung is the one just before the Four Questions. The Magid section starts with "Ha Lachma Anya." I found both an Ashkenazic and a Sephardic setting.

And what better way to answer the Four Questions than with another song? There are many melodies to the passage directly after it, "Avadim Hayinu," but I am partial to Debbie Friedman's.

I did not grow up singing about the Four Sons, which comes next. But in college, I attended a Seder where they did… to the tune of "My Darling Clementine."

The next often-sung paragraph is "Vehi She'amdah." Yaacov Shwekey has a very pretty new melody for it.

The sections leading up to and directly after the Ten Plagues, Talmudic analyses of some Torah verses, do not lend itself to singing. But then comes "Dayenu."

Surprisingly, I cannot find a song for the next part, explaining the significance of the bone on the Seder plate, the matzah, and the marror. Any Jewish songwriters willing to tackle this?

Well, next come the "appetizers" before the meal- eating the matzah itself, then the marror, then both together. You can sing-song the blessings, but I don't see a song for marror. I suppose you can use this…

At many Seders, participants bring their own Haggadot, leading to lively discussion about varying interpretations. Or they bring their own foods, or questions… or even more guests.

What if, this year, everyone was asked to come to the Seder with a new song? It would have to be taken from the Haggadah, or at least related to Passover. Here, I'll help you find yours. You just might start a new musical tradition!

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, harmonious Pesach.

Some songs make you laugh even though they were not intended to. But some songs were meant to, and we call those "novelty songs."

Jews are known to be great songwriters, and we're known to be great comedy writers. So it stands to reason that we would be among those known for novelty songs, right? Well, would I be writing about this, otherwise? As to why I'm writing about it now, well, you might want to borrow some of these for your Purim-shpiel.

One of the first maestros of novelty song was a very Jewish one indeed: He took popular songs and substituted Yiddish words and Jewish themes; he set them to Jewish klezmer music; he even had a rather Jewish last name. His full name was Mickey Katz, and here is his spin on the classic work song "16 Tons." Mickey was the father of Joel Grey and grandfather of Jennifer Grey. And here she is, singing one of her zaide's songs, his version of the theme song to the TV show Davy Crockett.

While we know them as movie stars, the Marx Brothers usually worked their vaudevillian songs into their films as well. See if you can catch the Yiddish word Groucho slips into "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" from Animal Crackers. (It starts at the 1:44 mark, but "Hello, I Must Be Going" which leads into it, is worth watching, too.)

Other Jewish comic performers, like Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar, Eddie Cantor, and later Mel Brooks would work novelty songs into their live acts, radio and TV shows, and movies, too. Many of the earlier ones written by the kings of Tin Pan Alley, but Mel wrote his own.

The next Jewish songwriters to write novelty songs for their own sake were probably the team of Lieber and Stoller. They did write for Elvis—including one he borrowed from Big Mama Thornton, "Hound Dog"—and other solo acts. But mostly they wrote romantic songs for The Drifters… and novelty songs for The Coasters. One of the most famous of these is the parent-mocking "Yakety Yak."

The most successful novelty songwriter of the 1960s harked back to the Mickey Katz idea of parodying current and traditional songs. Allan Sherman's sensibilities and delivery were quite Jewish, and so were some of his lyrics. His biggest hit was Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah, but even more Jewish were Sarah Jockman, Shake Hands with Your Uncle Max, The Ballad of Harry Lewis… and his most Jewish work: Harvey and Sheila. How big was Allan? He even sang with these guys.

Speaking of the Rat Pack, we should mention that its Jewish member, Sammy Davis, Jr., sang some novelty songs as well… although they could also be considered simply children's songs, since they were from movies like Willy Wonka and Dr. Dolittle.

Allan was somewhat political, but nowhere near as much as Tom Lehrer, who parodied song styles and genres more than specific tunes. Some of his songs are a bit dated, but many survive, especially his setting of the Periodic Table of Elements to the tune of "A Modern Major General." Lehrer's humor is quite arch, and often somewhat R-rated, and he shares a fan base with Monty Python. His most Jewish song is one about where to spend the Jewish holidays: "Hanukkah in Santa Monica."

Chicago's own Shel Silverstein is known for his children's books of poems, stories, and doodles. But if he had done none of that, he would still be known for his adult work, mostly novelty songs. He is in the Country Music Hall of Fame for "A Boy Named Sue," a hit for Johnny Cash, and but he wrote albums' worth of  other novelty songs. Another famous one is about some animals that missed Noah's Ark. A band called The Irish Rovers picked it up, and now every St. Patrick's Day, you'll hear "The Unicorn Song" for no reason.

One songwriter often uses humor to make a point, and is sometimes so pointed that many miss the point. Randy Newman's sardonic songs include his own "Short People," and a few hits for Three Dog Night. Everyone from Judy Collins to Wilson Pickett has done his songs. One was picked up by The Muppets, and now he brings his sentimentality and sarcasm to Pixar movies.

Tom Glazer's biggest hit was "On Top of Spaghetti," a parody of "On Top of Old Smokey," and like him, most novelty-song writers are one-hit wonders. This includes comic actor Adam Sandler, who had a hit with one song three times- because he keep re-working his (inaccurate!) "Chanukah Song." You've heard him do it enough, so the link is to Neil Diamond's cover.

Oh, and the Australian Jewish punk band YIDcore recorded a version listing many of the Jews in punk music. In the video, Adam's face is on cops shooting the band, and you can read about why here.

Even with the explosion of novelty songs and parodies brought on by YouTube these days, one man dominates: Andy Samberg. After his breakout video, "Lazy Sunday," he and his Lonely Island bandmates have put out one hysterical original video after another. And, once Justin Timberlake guest-starred on one track, everyone from singers like Michael Bolton to Rihanna to comic actors like Seth Rogen and Jack Black has performed on one of their mostly R-rated songs. Their latest, "You Only Live Once (YOLO)" features Maroon 5's Adam Levine.

Speaking of Jack Black, he is the singer of the duo Tenacious D, and probably the first heavy-metal parody songwriter… since the members of Spinal Tap, of course, including Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest.

True, not every single novelty songwriter has been Jewish. Not Shirley Temple, Tom Paxton, Mark Russell, Rodney Carrington, The Capitol Steps, The Bobs, Ray Stevens, Loudon Wainwright III, or even Stan Freberg (his dad was a Baptist minister). Nor are the members of Monty Python or Flight of the Conchords.

But even the major non-Jewish ones like "Weird" Al Yankovic and Spike Jones have recorded Jewish-related material. And it's hard not to see that Jewish talent is over-represented in this area, compared to how many Jews there are altogether.

To get many of the best Jewish novelty songs in one place, the CD Now That Sounds Kosher! is a good start. However, it contains too many new songs written just for it, which seems unnecessary, given the wealth of material- almost a century's worth- from which to draw. For example, the vintage tracks collected on From Avenue A to the Great White Way and the mid-century work compiled by The Idelsohn Society.

Now stop reading and get busy on your own Purim-shpiel. The tradition of Jewish novelty song is waiting for its next Mickey Katz! 

Even thought it's not the end of a Jewish year, it's still time for reflection and all that. So I thought I would reflect on how I came to be a Jewish music blogger, of all things.

It started in college. I had a friend named Andy Carvin, and he always seemed to be going to some concert or play or something. So I asked him about it. 

"You know that new arts newspaper on campus?" he replied. "I write that. And since I write the reviews, other people started sending me things to review. I'll show you."

In his dorm room were stacks of CDs. He showed me the free tickets he had gotten to dozens shows, from concerts to stand-ups to plays, even ones in downtown Chicago. And since he usually got two but didn't always have a date, I got to go to a show or two with him. 

After my graduation in 1992, I needed to pick up some freelance work to support myself while I looked for a job. I met with the editor of Scene magazine, a local arts publication in my hometown, Cleveland. The editor pointed to a stack of CDs on his windowsill.

"You can review any of these you like," he said, "I'll pay you and you can even keep the CD." I selected one by the only singer in the stack I had heard of: Leonard Cohen. As I didn't really know any of his work, I went and bought a couple of his other CDs, too. I still have my published review of The Future in my scrapbook. And I finally got to see Cohen in concert just this year. 

While I had been a student, I had interned at JUF. A couple of years after graduation, there was a reorganization. My former boss, Zan Skolnick, remembered me and brought me on board to fill a vacancy.

One day, I had to ask Aaron Cohen, then the editor of JUF News, a question. He was on the phone, so I looked idly around the office. That's when I saw the stack of CDs on his desk, much like the ones I had seen years before in Andy's room and at the Scene office. Without asking, I began to flip through them. 

Aaron hung up the phone. "We get those all the time. But there's no one to review them. If you want to, you can keep the CDs, too."

That was in 1999. Today, I have hundreds of Jewish CDs in my collection, and my reviews have been picked up by other Jewish papers, too. I have interviewed dozens of Jewish musicians. A few years ago, JUF's website (and I was here before that existed, too!) began posting podcasts, and I moved into the new millennium embracing that technology as well, uploading interviews I have done with many major (and some that should be) Jewish musicians and singers. 

Now, the "thing" is blogs, and here I am. And thanks to Leonard and Aaron Cohen (no relation, except Biblically), that's how I got here.

Jews write songs. People buy Christmas songs. So, naturally Jews have written Christmas songs, a fact that has been well-documented. But those songs were for, um, other people to sing, right? 

Sometimes. thing is, Jews have released many Christmas albums; I found about two dozen. Some singers have recorded more than one. And these have tended to include some of the most famously Jewish performers, like Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, and Barry Manilow.

Again, this is understandable; to many Americans, it might even be offensive if someone with a wide, mainstream audience did not sing the occasional Christmas song. Diversity and acceptance work both ways, after all.

Still, there are Christmas songs, and then there are Christmas songs. Some songs don't even mention the holiday- like "Winter Wonderland," "Jingle Bells," or "Let It Snow." Some just celebrate the holiday as a fun time, like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" or "Here Comes Santa Claus." Meanwhile, other songs are much more explicit about the "Christ" part of "Christmas"… and Jews have not tended to write those. 

I found lists at other sites of "Jewish singers and their Christmas albums," but none of those articles delves into the kind of Christmas songs are on the albums themselves. Clearly, someone had to.

The earliest one I could find was Christmas With Eddie Fisher, released in 1952 with eight songs and in 1969 with two more. The initial selection includes three new melodies; the rest are standards. Religious song-to-secular song ratio for the original release- 2:6.  

His psychological issues aside, no one disputes Phil Spector's skill in the studio. One of his few releases under his own name, 1963's A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector, features 13 entirely secular tracks sung by The Crystals, the Ronnettes, and Darlene Love.

One of the most visibly Jewish of Jewish singers, Barbra Streisand, was also one of the first out with the clearly titled A Christmas Album. While her Jewish contemporaries, Simon & Garfunkel, performed a socially provocative "Silent Night" in 1968, Streisand served up an entirely sincere version on this album, just the year before. Also "The Lord's Prayer" and even "Ave Maria." Her ratio? Almost a tie, with a razor's edge to secular material- 5:6. 

In 2001, 34 years after her first Christmas release, in 2001, Streisand released Christmas Memories (2001). It was finished before the 9/11 attacks, but many wondered if it had been, given its somber, nostalgic tone. Also, it includes the song "One God," about how many religions are similar. Ratio- 2:10. (The other religious song? "Ave Maria" again.) 

Amazingly, I can't find any Christmas albums by Jewish performers for all of the 1970s or 1980s. 

Then Barry Manilow, um, broke the ice in 1990 with Because it's Christmas. At 4:11, it's solidly secular. Twelve years later, Manilow was back with A Christmas Gift of Love, with 11 entirely secular tracks. And he went back to the well again in 2007 for In The Swing of Christmas for another 12, making him one of the few Jews to have recorded three Christmas albums or more. 

Mel Torme had written the Christmas song already. No, really, the song about "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" is officially titled "The Christmas Song," and he wrote it. Anyway, he recorded Christmas Songs in 1992, with the religious song "What Child is This?" (and also "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"…  presented as an instrumental. Is that a half?) Anyway, with 18 secular songs sung by Torme, the album is clearly secular in nature.

Like Manilow, Neil Diamond went in big time, with three Christmas albums. On 1992's The Christmas Album, almost half the songs are religious, with a one-point edge to secular- 7:8. Two years later, he was back with Volume 2, on which religious songs win out, 9:7. Then he took a break, coming back in 2009 with A Cherry Cherry Chrismas ("Cherry Cherry" being the name of one of his earliest hits and also rhyming with "merry merry") on which the score was 2:12, so it was overwhelmingly secular. But some Jewish guilt must have crept in after three Christmas albums, because the last track this time was Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song." He has prepped for this in 2006, performing "Hava Negila" at the end of Keeping Up with the Steins; Diamond hadn't done The Jazz Singer since 1980 and probably needed to make sure he didn't, as they say in politics, lose his base.

Harry Connick Jr. had a Jewish mother, but identifies with his father's Catholicism. His 1993 release When My Heart Finds Christmas has a 6:9 religious-to-secular ratio. But the originals he wrote and included here have titles like "The Blessed Dawn of Christmas Day" and the self-explanitory "I Pray on Christmas."

Unlike Streisand and Diamond, Carly Simon never put out any overtly Jewish material- her closest is Really Rosie- and, like Connick, many don't even know of her Jewish heritage. So there was no real reaction when she released Christmas is Almost Here, which has a secular-slanted 4:7 ratio anyway.

The "M" in "Divine Miss M' does not stand for "Madrigal," but Bette Midler came out with Cool Yule in 2006. Some of the songs aren't even Christmas ones, just winter ones, like "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm." So it's no surprise that the score is 2:10- overwhelmingly secular, in keeping with both the album's title and Midler's cheeky persona. 

It had been decades since Bob Dylan dabbled in Christianity, so it was a bit of a jaw-dropper when he dropped Christmas in the Heart in 2009. Also, this is one guy about which no one has said, "I could listen to him sing the phone book," so why do we need his versions of songs sung by Bing Crosby and Barbra Streisand? The score is 6:9 so it's secular, but not overwhelmingly so. (Bob, the rabbi would like a word before you do another Chabad telethon...)

When one of her generation's most beloved songwriters comes out with her first album in 10 years, it is a bit of a letdown when it's a Christmas album. Still, Carole King did present some originals on 2011's A Christmas Carole (get it?). There is only one religious track to the 10 that are secular, plus Chanukah Prayer, which is simply the Chanukah candle-lighting blessing repeated over and over by children to a dissonant jazz backing. 

Those who know sax player John Zorn's music know that it is wildly eclectic. But he called his band Masada and his label Tzadik, so the one kind of music he'd never do is Christian, right? Well, not up until 2011, when Zorn released A Dreamer's Christmas. Like almost all of his enormous output (107 albums and counting), it's experimental, it's provocative, and it's instrumental. All nine tracks are of secular songs, even if you are only singing the words in your head. 

But the reigning king of Jews with Christmas albums is… Kenneth Gorelick! Whom you know as just "Kenny G." He has four Christmas albums. The first, Miracles: The Holiday Album, came out in 1994, and only one of its 11 (instrumental) tracks was religious. The Holiday Album series continued with Faith  (1999, 6:7) and Wishes (2002, 7:6). Then in 2005, G released a "best of" from these three, added some bonus tracks including "The Chanukah Song," and dubbed the whole schmear The Greatest Holiday Classics. It has a very secular feel, with a 4:13 ratio. 

Jews have written everything from "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin to "Getting Ready for Christmas Day" by Paul Simon to, well, "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" by The Ramones. Since Jews wrote so many Christmas favorites, it is hard to argue that Jewish singers are doing something "wrong" by performing them. And, these singers are performing, as we have seen, largely secular works celebrating a festive season-- not professing a faith counter to their own-- for a paycheck.

It's like the Jewish joke about the teacher who asks the student who the most important person in history is; whoever is right gets $5.00. Students guess Lincoln, Gandhi, and Galileo. Finally, Sammy raises his hand and says "Jesus." The teacher tells him he's right and calls him up to take the money. As she hands it to him, she says, "I'm surprised, since you are Jewish." Sammy shrugs. "I know the answer is Moses," he says, taking the five. "But business is business."

It's October, and that means… The Hip-Hop Awards, of course! So we will use that as an opportunity to look back at the Jewish contribution to, of all things, rap music.

The involvement of Jews in rap and hip-hop probably starts with the Beastie Boys, all three of whom are Jewish: Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, and the late Adam "MCA" Yauch.

As far as acknowledging their Jewishness in song, they followed the pattern of the rock and pop stars who went before. Which is to say that they barely mentioned it, if at all; one of the few examples of the Beasties bringing up their Jewish heritage is their song "Shadrach."

A less known group, 3^rd Bass, had a member who went by MC Serch but who was born Michael Berrin. He offered " No Master Plan, No Master Race" as a minority-solidarity anthem. Today, he is a DJ in the original sense, playing music on the radio.

More of the acclaim level of the Beastie Boys was a large and loose collective known as the Wu-Tang Clan. One of its members, Remedy, was born Ross Filler in Staten Island, and he remains quite observant. Only the Jew in the Wu could have written a song about his Hebrew name: "Reuven ben Menachem." Wherever he goes, Remedy is open and proud of his Yiddishkeit, and even performed his Holocaust-memorial song "Never Again" in Berlin.

Then there are the brothers Braunstein--Ronnie, a.k.a. Necro, and Ill Bill--second-generation Israeli-Americans. Necro is a solo act who also runs a production studio; in one of his few Jewish tracks, " Jewish Gangsters," he embraces the history of Jewish mobsters like Meyer Lansky, explaining his reaction to anti-Semitism. Ill Bill, meanwhile, is part of Non Phixion, which also includes Jewish rapper Goretex Medinah. Both Necro and Non Phixion toss Jewish references into their lyrics like croutons in chicken soup. Necro gets his props and has able to lure some major names, like Prince Paul, to perform on his brother's albums, but still faces anti-Semitism from his fellow musicians.

Women Jewish rappers run the gamut from Concetta "Princess Superstar" Kirschner, whose lyrics would make Britney blush, to the members of Northern State, who merge the no-frills look and sound of The Ramones with the fun feminism of P!nk. Regardless of their take on rap, they have thus far sidestepped the matter of their Jewishness.

As in many (if not most) areas of pop music, Jews have made major contributions behind the scenes as well. Multi-Grammy winner Rick Rubin has worked with everyone from eardrum-busters Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, AC-DC, and Metallica to mainstream acts like Tom Petty, Mick Jagger, Neil Diamond and Adele. More recently, he scored hits with country acts Johnny Cash and The Dixie Chicks. But he began by partnering with Russell Simmons to create Def Jam, a seminal rap label, with acts like Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and of course the Beastie Boys; he later produced Jay-Z.

Lyor Cohen has also contributed to the careers of the Beasties, Run-DMC, and LL Cool J, as well as more recent acts like Foxy Brown and Nas. He was born in New York to Israeli parents. Over the years he helped start several labels that became major forces in popular music, including Island Records and Roc-A-Fella. On Sept. 29, he resigned from his post as the North American Chairman and CEO of Recorded Music for Warner Music Group.

So when Matisyahu (whose new album, Spark Seeker, just dropped) takes the stage, he does break new ground by incorporating everything from Chasidism and reggae into his hip-hop style. And he is certainly the most openly Jewish rapper ever in his stage presence- even beard-less, he promotes a very positive image of Judaism in his lyrics.

But he is not the first Jewish rap star. License to Ill came out when a Matisyahu was six years old. And the Beastie "Boys" are now fortysomething men, leaving a legacy honored with a short film featuring some very recognizable faces… and this.

Why have so many Jews been drawn to rap music? Well, Jews have always been at the forefront when it comes to fighting for rights. Even the right to party.