Cee Lo Green took the Internet by storm last year with a song that became a viral sensation, but whose name we can’t print in the newspaper. Green later released a sanitized version titled “Forget You.” (Anyone who has watched “The Sopranos” on A&E rather than HBO will get the translation.)

At the Grammys earlier this month, Green had some more fun with the song, which was nominated in several categories, including both Record and Song of the Year (and re-titled, for broadcast purposes, “The Song Otherwise Known as ‘Forget You'”). He performed it, backed by a cadre of musical Muppet characters and Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, in a colorful bird costume that was either a nod to, or outright theft of, an outfit worn by Elton John on “The Muppet Show” in 1977.

 I bring all this up to alert you to a clever parody version of the song that was forwarded to me this week. “Bar’chu! (I’m a Jew)” by the Jew Man Group is a “kosher remix” of Green’s song. The video clip – available on the group’s website, jewmangroup.com, or on YouTube – sports such lyrics as “I’ve got my head face down in my parashah and I’m like/”Bar’chu” (I’m a Jew!)/Bein’ a mohel or a shochet won’t be enough so I’m like/”Bar’chu” and “Yism’chu!””

And later: “Yeah, my party won’t have calamari/And the caterer kashers the silverware/Whether in the city or on a safari/I don’t matter ‘cause you can pray anywhere.”

 It’s not nearly as outrageous as the original song, but it made me smile, and I’m guessing it’ll make you smile, too.

Pernikoff Brothers perform at Wash. U

The Pernikoff Brothers, profiled in this space last summer, will kick off the Kemper Presents Concert Series at Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, March 4.

 St. Louis-based brothers Tom and Rick Pernikoff continue to promote their debut album “On My Way,” recorded earlier this year in Nashville. “The stuff you’ll hear on the album is pretty diverse,” Tom told the Jewish Light at the time of the album’s release. “There’s a lot of acoustic stuff but there’s also a lot of full band stuff…. Folk, rock and soul are the things that come to mind.”

 Other artists participating in the weekly series are Paper Dolls, Prune, Mosaic Whispers, Beth Bombara, Pretty Little Empire and Bob Reuter. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 935-5490 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu

Al Hammerman headlines Make-A-Wish benefit concert

“Night After Night: Words & Music by Al Hammerman,” a benefit concert for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Missouri, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 25 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Hammerman, whose albums include “…just lucky” and “All New Songs,” writes and sings smart, sophisticated jazz/pop songs that draw from the Great American Songbook. By day, he’s a radiologist and co-owner of Metro Imaging. He’s also on the board of directors of Kids Rock Cancer, a relatively new St. Louis-based charity sponsored by Maryville University.

 At the Sheldon, Hammerman will be joined by vocalists Kim Fuller, Arvell Keithley, Debby Lennon & Alan Ox, plus a 12-piece orchestra and the St. Louis Muny Kids.

Tickets for the event are $50, $75 and $100 and are tax-deductible. They can be ordered by phone at 314-872-3942; by mail by writing Whistlewind Productions, #6 Dunleith Drive, St. Louis, Mo. 63124, or online at [email protected]. More information on the concert, and on Hammerman himself, can be found at alhammerman.com.

Notable release from Clare Burson

Singer/songwriter Clare Burson has been making the rounds of the late-night chat shows lately, and those appearances have made me aware – belatedly, alas – of her extraordinary album “Silver and Ashes,” which was released last September.

 The album is an exploration of the Memphis-born, Brooklyn-based Burson’s familial roots; specifically, the early life of her Jewish grandmother, Helga Rabinowitsch, who at age 19 escaped from Germany with her younger brother on November 9, 1938 – the day of Kristallnacht.

On the surface, the songs offer pleasant folk-pop stylings, but lyrically, they go deep. “Everything’s Gone,” is about her grandmother’s recollection of hearing Hitler ranting on the radio while the family lays low and laments “There’s no way out.” “Goodbye My Love,” meanwhile, recounts Burson’s visit to an apartment in Leipzig where Grandma Rabinowitsch and her family once lived.

In part, the album was inspired by Burson’s desire to demystify what had become a taboo subject in her family. Her grandmother simply refused to talk about it and everyone around her learned not to ask. In breaking through the silence, Burson uncovered not only a remarkable story of survival, but an important piece of her own history as well.