Ahead of “Saturday Night Live’s” holiday episode, a performance on the show by Adam Sandler 30 years ago is still bringing the “funukah.”
Co-written by “SNL” writers Ian Maxtone-Graham and Lew Morton, Sandler first debuted “The Chanukah Song” during a Weekend Update segment on December 3, 1994, expressing his perplexity about why there were so few songs about the Jewish festival of light.
Over the years, the comical tune became part of the holiday season cannon. It has been updated in four different versions with varying lyrics and cultural references, but the tune has stood the test of time.
When Sandler’s animated Chanukah movie “Eight Crazy Nights” hit theaters in 2002, “The Chanukah Song” Part 3 released with the film. That version of the song featured a choir of children, named by Sandler as “The Drei-Dreis” (after the Chanukah toy known as a “dreidel”), singing background vocals.
Three of those singers, as it turned out, were my cousins – who auditioned and were cast to be part of “The Drei-Dreis.”
“We performed live at a concert with Adam when he debuted it live. Rob Schneider sang with us! And then we recorded for the ‘Eight Crazy Nights’ album at a music studio in Hollywood,” my cousin, Jono Wagmeister, now 34, recalled of his audition alongside his brothers David, 37, and Michael, 29. (At the time, they were 11, 14 and 7 years old, respectively.)
My cousins told me that Sandler’s team had traveled to Jewish synagogues around Los Angeles to audition children who sang in synagogue choirs.
For my cousins, who sang with the youth singing group at University Synagogue in Los Angeles, it was a kids’ dream come true to be selected.
“It was really fun to sing with Adam and other Jewish singers from around LA,” my cousin David shared. “When we met Adam backstage, he was such a genuinely nice and down-to-earth guy. Also, the fact that it was important to Adam that his backup singers be Hebrew school kids made me feel even more proud to be Jewish. It was all around a great experience!”
My cousin Michael, who is the baby of our family, was actually too young to audition. But Sandler’s team let him have a role anyway.
“I was super jealous that my brothers were doing it and wanted to force myself in somehow, so I went when they auditioned after little league practice in a Yankees jersey and cleats. Adam’s team thought I looked cute and asked if I sang, too,” Michael recalled. “They included me as the youngest member on one condition – that I wear exactly that outfit at the performance with Adam. He even called it out specifically and poked fun at my cleats during the concert!”
These “Chanukah Song” memories have not just lasted decades within the Wagmeister family – but also for Sandler and people around the world who love the tune.
“If it comes on the radio, and I hear it, I get excited. That’s still awesome,” Sandler told the New York Post last year.
In celebration of three decades of Sandler singing about “eight crazy nights,” Here’s a look back at the lyrics to the “not too shabby” and very “happy, happy, happy, happy” “Chanukah Song.”
“The Chanukah Song”
Put on your yarmulke
Here comes Chanukah
So much funukkah
To celebrate Chanukah
Chanukah is the festival of lights
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights
When you feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree
Here’s a list of people who are Jewish just like you and me
David Lee Roth lights the menorah
So do James Caan, Kirk Douglas, and the late Dinah Shore-ah
Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli?
Bowzer from Sha Na Na and Arthur Fonzarelli
Paul Newman’s half Jewish, Goldie Hawn’s half, too
Put them together, what a fine lookin’ Jew
You don’t need “Deck The Halls” or “Jingle Bell Rock”
‘Cause you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, both Jewish
Put on your yarmulke
It’s time for Chanukah
The owner of the Seattle Supersonic-ahs
Celebrates Chanukah
O.J. Simpson, not a Jew
But guess who is? Hall of famer Rod Carew, he converted
We got Ann Landers and her sister, Dear Abby
Harrison Ford’s a quarter Jewish, not too shabby
Some people think that Ebenezer Scrooge is
Well, he’s not, but guess who is?
All three Stooges
So many Jews are in showbiz
Tom Cruise isn’t, but I heard his agent is
Tell your friend, Veronica
It’s time you celebrate Chanukah
I hope I get a harmonica
On this lovely, lovely Chanukah
So drink your gin and tonic-ah
And smoke your marijuani-khah
If you really, really wanna-kah
Have a happy, happy, happy, happy Chanukah
Happy Chanukah
