From the mailbag...

Michael emails:

I heard a song on Nachum Segal’s show this morning (the archives and playlist for the show aren’t posted yet). It sounded like three guys singing “Shomer Yisrael” to the tune of the Beatles’ “The Word.” The first section (‘low part’) of the song mirrors “The Word” identically, then they improvised a high part and bridge that, in my opinion, are fairly weak. They copied the bass line and harmony structure directly from the Beatles, so I wonder who the group is and whether they’ve credited the original composers.

Have you encountered this song anywhere?

Anyone know what song this is?

Chaim writes:

Hi, first of all, I don't think what your describing is bad for the Jewish Music industry, as much as it gives a bad name to the Jewish SIMCHA industry. Second, I don't think you can really blame Only Simchas for this. The actual service performed by only simchas is a noble one. People obviously love it because if there is one site that no matter if your Yeshivish or Lubavitch, Chaseedish or Modern Orthodox, everyone posts their simchas there and everyone goes there to view simchas. They have universal appeal and they are well received.

If blame should be placed anywhere, it should be at the doorstep of the simcha services that are acting like ambulance chasers and abusing the sites obvious source of potential clients. It's one thing to advertise your product on the site. It's another to call, email or harass them.

I think that if anything is bad here, its that simcha services that do abuse people are giving themselves a bad name. You said it must be working, because why otherwise would they keep doing it. I don't think that it is working for them in the long run. They may harass someone into going with them for flowers, photography or a band, but in the end they will get this bad reputation. Not to mention that if after they accosted these people and went so aggressively after them, if they don't perform well, they will get a worse reputation than if they had just been selected through a normal course of action.

Chaim is correct. This is not the fault of Only Simchas in any way. I used JM referring to the simcha band side of the JM industry. I've been hearing some interesting comments on these tactics, as well as some more dishonest angles to this approach. Developing...