In 1967, after his recording career had gone into a tailspin,
Allan Sherman was looking to make some changes, which is obvious from one look at the cover of his final (commercially released) album,
Togetherness.
Sherman had gotten rid of his glasses in favor of contact lenses and dropped a good share of his trademark bulk (though he would gain it back in time), and the cover of the album finds him taking part in a cryptic parody of Warner Bros. Records' star of the moment,
Petula Clark (who
Sherman had already lampooned on his single "Crazy Downtown").
Togetherness also broke with tradition for
Sherman by being recorded without an audience, and with
Peter Matz (later to become
Carol Burnett's musical director) handling the arrangements for the first time.
Togetherness featured some interesting experiments -- the conceptual humor of "Plan Ahead" and the title cut was decidedly out of the ordinary for
Sherman, and the production on "Strange Things in My Soup" and "Westchester Hadassah" found him attempting to replicate the sound as well as the melody of current pop hits for the first time. But despite its ambition and
Sherman's slightly desperate good cheer throughout the album,
Togetherness is quite simply
Allan Sherman's worst album -- most of the gags fall flat, "Turn Back the Clock" and "My Aunt Minnie" are devoid of
Sherman's usual bite, and while the
Ronald Reagan parody of "There's No Governor Like Our New Governor" was prescient, it seems somehow half-hearted, like much of the rest of the disc. Warner Bros. dropped
Sherman, once one of their biggest stars, from their roster after
Togetherness failed to chart, and listening to the record, it's hard not to agree with their judgment. ~ Mark Deming