The Pop Singer

in every living soul, a spirit has cried for expression - - it can therefore be said that this plaintive, wailing popular song is, after all, an utterance of a prayer that has been lost in misunderstanding.

This brings us to the Ghetto of Manehattan, which throbs to that musical rhythm older than civilization itself.

It is here that we meet Cantor Velvet-Melodavitz, a pegasus pony who chants hymns in the synagogue, and who has stubbornly held tight to the ancient traditions of his Jewish faith. He tells his wife, "Tonight, Reddo must sing 'Kol Nidre'. She should be here!"

And his wife's name is Rachel Velvet-Melodavitz. God made her a mare. Love made her a mother. She says, "Maybe our girl doesn't want to live the life of a cantor, Papa - - "

"Oh well, if that's all - - then what should SHE say about it? For five generations now, a Velvet-Melodavitz was a cantor, - - she MUST be among them!"

Thunderbolt Sentinel, a pegasus who works as a popular recording artist and crooner, is at the beer garden, having almost completed a performance of the song "To Each Her Own". With the pride he has received from the ecstatic applause, he says "OK my friends. We have a special guest for you this evening. Her name is Reddo Velvet-Melodavitz, and she is a brilliantly talented fellow pegasus pony destined to become among the all time greatest performers Equestria has ever had."

Reddo walked into the center of the stage and then sung:

I'm sorry, so sorry

That I was such a fool

I didn't know

Love could be so cruel

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh

Oh, yes

. . . Other than Reddo (who still sings the song), another patron of the garden that night was Moishe Ben-Yudelman, a Unicorn who is rigidly orthodox and a power in the affairs of his ghetto. He walks into the concert area (behind the bar-doors) and finds Reddo singing a popular song on the stage. This both startles and horrifies him and he puts his drink down and tries to run into the Velvet-Melodavitz' residence, where Cantor Velvet-Melodavitz is comforting his grieving wife, telling her: "I have taught her every hymn and every prayer, and she knows them as well as I do." She says: "Yes papa - she knows all the songs - they're all in her head, but not in her heart." Cantor replies: The fasting of Yom Kippur will begin for her, and without supper!" Suddenly, he hears (and responds to) a knock at the door. He opens it, and it turns out to be Moishe!

Moishe delivers the question, "In a saloon somewhere in Manehattan, I caught someone singing poppy songs. Who do you think it was?"

To the confused couple, he continues, ". . . YOUR DAUGHTER REDDO!"

The horrified father pushes Moishe out of the way, and then makes his way to the beer garden, where Reddo is now performing a tune called "Anytime". He prys Reddo out of the garden and back into the Velvet-Melodavitz household.

Mother is confused as to why Reddo has been grabbed by her dress by father, who replies, "I've taught her better than to debase the voice supplied to her by God. And I'll teach her again!" Mother replies, "Papa - - our girl, she does not think like we do." Father isn't convinced: "First she will get a whipping!" He then whips poor Reddo, who, whimpering out of horror, cries out "If you ever whip me again Papa, I'll run away from home . . . AND I'LL NEVER COME BACK!"

Reddo is then taken by her father outside the house, where she is whipped a whopping five times to the cries of her mother. Reddo is understandably shaken by this and cries onto his mother. Father comes back in to see the light shine on the nearby synagogue. He then tells Rachel, "Mama, let's prepare the services." Mama cries, "Our girl is gone and she is never coming back." Father then leaves the house to go to the synagogue.

The Yom Kippur services are being prepared. One man tells papa, "What's wrong?" Papa replies: "My daughter was to stand beside me and sing tonight - - but I now have no son."

After crying onto a tissue, he then picked up a prayer book and began reciting:

Ve'esarei, Ush'vuei, Vacharamei, Vekonamei, Vekinusei, Vechinuyei.

D'indarna, Ud'ishtabana, Ud'acharimna, Ud'assarna Al nafshatana

Miyom Kippurim zeh, ad Yom Kippurim haba aleinu letovah

Bechulhon Icharatna vehon, Kulhon yehon sharan

Sh'vikin sh'vitin, betelin umevutalin, lo sheririn v'lo kayamin

Nidrana lo nidrei, V'essarana lo essarei

Ush'vuatana lo shevuot.