Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Piano Classics Review and Giveaway

What or Who is Beethovens's Wig?

Beethoven once said, "If my music had words it'd be a lot more popular." His wish has come true, but he had to wait 200 years for the other half of his team. Modern day “co-writer” Richard Perlmutter, lyricist and lead singer with four-time GRAMMY® nominee Beethoven’s Wig, has, in the Beethoven’s Wig series of recordings, added witty and insightful lyrics to instrumental selections by Beethoven (and Bach, Mozart, et al.) that have zipped the works of the longhairs to the tops of the charts and created a charming, fresh, and memorable introduction to some of the world’s greatest music.

A number of years ago, Richard Perlmutter was toying with the idea of creating lyrics set to masterpieces of classical music when one day, while humming Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the phrase “Beethoven’s Wig is very big” popped into his head. "It really resonated with my objectives because the words fit perfectly with the first eight notes of the symphony,” recalls Perlmutter. “Besides, the wig is sort of like a mascot for classical music." After dressing up the entire first movement with lyrics that are charged with “laugh out loud” humor that tickles funny bones of all ages, he turned to works of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Haydn and other musical heavyweights. Eventually, his muse led him to a studio where he created a groundbreaking recording, backed up by full symphony orchestra and four opera singers.

Richard Perlmutter’s first album, Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies, was released in 2002. Within a week of its debut, Perlmutter was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, followed by an appearance on NBC’s Today Show. The album shot to the top of Amazon’s Bestseller List, holding the #1 position on both the Amazon classical and children's music sales charts for four months. Over the next year, Beethoven's Wig received 15 national awards including a GRAMMY nomination for Best Musical Album for Children.

When Perlmutter followed up in 2004 with Beethoven's Wig 2 (featuring an additional assortment of classical masterpieces fitted with his brainy lyrics), the two albums simultaneously took over the #1 and #2 spots on Amazon's Bestseller List. The overwhelming success of these two albums created a demand for live performances, and Beethoven’s Wig soon began to appear throughout the country in their own sold out shows and as featured guest performers with symphony orchestras and other ensembles. Meanwhile, Perlmutter received his second GRAMMY nomination for Beethoven’s Wig 2. Subsequent releases Beethoven's Wig 3 (2006) and Beethoven's Wig 4 (2008) also garnered GRAMMY nominations.

To date, the Beethoven's Wig series has broken all records with an astounding 46 national awards. Hailed as opening the door to "serious music" in a way that's fun, Beethoven's Wig is now the most honored musical group in family entertainment.

What is Sing Along Classics?

The fifth Beethoven’s Wig album, Beethoven’s Wig: Sing Along Piano Classics — in which the Wig turns from symphonic to piano music — will be released September 27. Beethoven’s Wig: Sing Along Piano Classics adds the Beethoven’s Wig spin to giants of the keyboard: Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Debussy, and Mussorgsky, as well as sprucing up works by modern composers Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Henry Cowell with lyrics that are simultaneously thoughtful and highly amusing. Scott Joplin’s ragtime classic “The Entertainer” becomes the setting for a hilarious narrative about a piano that got stuck in the door and contains some of the funniest rhymes in music history. Perlmutter also makes sure not to overlook the most egalitarian piano composition of all, “Chopsticks.” Realizing that even the most erudite musical historians are a bit hazy about the origins of this ubiquitous two-finger keyboard classic, he comments ruefully, “‘Chopsticks’ is actually titled ‘The Celebrated Chop Waltz’ and was written by a sixteen-year-old English girl named Euphemia Allen who seemed to favor the pseudonym Arthur de Lulli. My lyrics begin: ‘My little chicken is peck, peck, peck, pecking. Whatever she's pecking she's wreck, wreck, wreck wrecking.’ In one part of the song I get to cluck like a chicken, backed up by some of the finest professional opera singers around singing ‘peck, peck, peck, pecking’ with exemplary operatic vocal production.”

What Did We Think?

This CD makes me think of a little boy who is forced to sit through a long "boring" piano concert. To keep himself entertained, he sits quietly in his seat, imagining the silliest of stories.  When you listen to this CD, you'll hear the beautiful piano classics in the background, paired with this boy's silly stories and you'll find yourself smiling! I sure did! Maggie is still a little young to understand all of the words to these songs, but I know as she gets older she'll love listenning to them. My favorite song is "Poor Uncle Joe." Poor Uncle Joe has a car that won't go and this song tells you all about it! I think this is a great CD that will introduce your children to beautiful classical music, while also keeping them very entertained! I also love that the 2nd half of this CD contains the piano classics with no lyrics. It's lovely to listen to!

Buy It!

You can purchase this CD (available 9/29/11) and the other 4 CD's from Beethoven's Wig at their website, http://beethovenswig.com/. You can also find them at Amazon.com.

Win It!

On of my readers is going to win their own copy of this cd. Use the easy entry form below to enter. Good luck!