NPR Listeners Respond To Novelty Act's Matzoh Mix

Take a novelty record, infuse it with the perfect holiday timing, toss in a bit of "Fresh Air" and, voila, What I Like About Jew has its first hit.

The duo -- Rockapella founder/former leader Sean Altman and Blender magazine music editor Rob Tannenbaum -- self-released its debut album, "Unorthodox," April 10. The next day, it ranked a pitiful 34,598 on the Amazon sales chart.

But later that day, after Terry Gross played the pair‘s Passover song, "They Tried to Kill Us (We Survived, Let‘s Eat)," on her NPR program, "Fresh Air," sales at Amazon started to soar. By April 12, the album was ranked No. 45 -- ahead of such acts as Coldplay, the Black Eyed Peas and Morrissey.With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Tannenbaum is sure the chart rise will continue: "After Passover comes Shavuot and, uh, Tisha B‘Av, which I‘m sure will keep us on the chart. And then we have three Hanukkah songs ... Right now, we‘re the top-selling Jews on Amazon -- bigger than Matisyahu and even Madonna."

What I Like About Jew is on a Passover tour that concludes April 21 in Los Angeles.

Source: Reuters/Billboard