The last hit record Allan Sherman made was his 1965 "Crazy Downtown," a parody (of course) of the even-greater hit by Petula Clark. In fact, it was Mr. Sherman's second-best selling single of all time, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" being numero uno. An associate of Sherman's once told me that the high fee he had to pay to secure the rights to rewrite "Downtown" and the hassle he had getting the song's composer to okay his silly lyrics dissuaded him from attempting many more spoofs of current hits. That was kind of a shame since his career crashed and burned soon after that.
One of many reasons his version did so well was that he made the rounds of every TV program that would let him on to perform it. Here he is on Shivaree, which was a syndicated music show in 1965 hosted by a gent named Gene Weed. Allan is lip-syncing to the record here and I'm guessing this is when it had just come out because he doesn't seem to know the lyrics and looks like he's reading them relentlessly off the cue cards. Still, it's Allan Sherman and some great dancers. What more do you want?
