Who would have thought Adam Sandler was so right?
I think everyone has heard Adam Sandler's Hanukah song at one time or another:
"David Lee Roth,
lights the Menorah"
Sandler was, in his comical way, pointing out the number of Jews in show biz ("Tom Cruise isn't, but I heard that his agent is!") but I was surprised at the contributions of Jews to Rock and Roll.
I came across this site this morning and had to post a link: http://jewsrock.org/
"Jewsrock.org is a non-profit group devoted to illuminating the intersection of rock and roll and Jewish culture. We've heard a lot about what the Jews have contributed to science, literature, the fine arts--all the high brow stuff. Well, we're going low."
I found it pretty interesting and well-written. For example, did you know that Doug Fieger and the other three members of the band The Knack were all Jewish? Or that the inspiration for the song "My Sharona" was a 16-year old employee at a Los Angeles clothing store named Sharona Alperin?
How about Gene Simmons of Kiss? He was born Chaim Witz in 1949, immigrating from Israel to Brooklyn at the age of nine, eventually changing his name so people wouldn’t know he was Jewish. Kiss' guitar player Paul Stanley.also changed his name from Stanley Eisen, so that people wouldn't know that he was Jewish.
Legendary rock guitarist Randy California was born Randy Wolf. Among other contributions to music, he was the founding guitarist for the group Spirit. Randy died in 1997 in a tragic accident off the coast of Hawaii. There is an article on whether Randy actually wrote the opening riffs for "Stairway to Heaven" at http://jewsrock.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=words.view&wordid=6F31035C-6AC4-432C-B1500A284287441E
You might want to take the "Jew or Not?" quiz at http://jewsrock.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=quiz.welcome
The site doesn't take itself too seriously. For example, the site poses the question about itself "Isn’t this idea a bit chauvinistic?" and offers its own answer:
" Only someone Jewish would ask that question. There’s nothing wrong—there’s everything right—with a dose of Jewish pride, something the founders of this site, as you might have guessed, have in abundant quantity. This is also a place to tell the story of Jews and rock, which is a great story and one that hasn’t yet been told."
Its a fun read.