Jordan writes:
The Bilvavi Harmony guy got me thinking about a particularly odious well meaning peep: The harmony from the wrong tune guy. He sings the background part from the first half of the Rabbi's Sons Rabos for Lev Tahor, which mean not only is he transposing it from C to D, but in Rabos, it's on a Major scale as opposed to the minor required for the first strain of Lev Tahor. He will also sing the background part from The Rabbi's Sons Tov L'Hodos to the Carlebach L'cho Dodi, which is rhythmically similar.
Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz responds to Zal:
The answer to your question may have to do with whether or not the compositions in question have been released. One of the rights of the copyright holder is the first release right. If the song is unpublished (a legal term of art) the author can do pretty much what he wants and charge as much as he wants. But once its recorded, anyone can cover it as long as they pay the compusory licensing fee (a few pennies per CD). So if you want Yossi Brown, the great hitmeister to write a "lechu neranna" for you that will guarantee airplay on Jm in the AM, there may very well be a significant fee involved. However, if you want to cover a Shlomo tune or a Megama tune, just obtain the compulsory license and presto - you're in
Michael G. responds to Dan T.'s query:
The album was called american simcha and was released in 78. The a side was english renditions of erev shel shoshanim, (garden of love) kol haolam (essence) and uvau (city of gold). The b side were instrumentals. As far as i know it is no longer available, i digitzed it into mp3 years ago.
PT forwards a link to his post,
Knob Covers. Bonus audio in the comments!
