Rabbi Goldberger told him he was wrong and proceeded to teach him about the six steps of bitachon by which Hashem would lift the technical barriers that Solomon had inadvertently put up to releasing the album. Within 30 days he got permission, when ACUM, the Israeli Composer and Musician’s licensing organization, re-defined taking an English song and putting Hebrew words to it as a new composition, thereby allowing him to apply for licensing to the songs. A month later the law was repealed but it was enough time for Solomon to get the rights and release the album.
One of Solomon’s best-selling songs is Ani Yehudi, co-written with Kobi Oz and performed with the crème de la crème of Jewish entertainers in We are the World style, celebrating and uniting Jews of every stripe. “I am a Jew and that is unique,” goes the lyric.
Another hit is We’ve Got a Strong Desire which is a sweep of Jewish history in 42 lines set to Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire.
He didn’t start the fire either, but Solomon’s parodies and adaptations have been igniting the Jewish spark in hundreds of thousands of Jews worldwide.
“Shlock Rock was not a plan, it just happened. It was supposed to be a one-cassette fad. But it goes on and on and on.
“The goal of Shlock Rock is to spread Jewish pride and Jewish awareness. 10% of Jews are observant and 90% are not.” Lenny Solomon is hoping to turn the numbers around. “There’s a strong connection between music and numbers,” the ex-accountant quips. Solomon writes from an Orthodox perspective but his music speaks to Jews everywhere.
“We’ve got a strong desire, we are always yearning for the Torah’s learning.”
“The most important thing is simcha. Without happiness Judaism is not fun! I’m giving people simcha!”
We all know that simcha is a mitzvah, a big one! And, of course, one mitzvah leads to another. Lenny Solomon is happily changing the Jewish world, one song at a time.
