Fiddler on the radio

Have you heard this new record by Gwen Stefani, "Rich Girl"? It's a pop/rap thing based, hilariously enough, on "If I Was a Rich Man" from "Fiddler on the Roof." Maybe I'm branding myself as an old fogey by knowing that it's based on "If I Was a Rich Man" from "Fiddler on the Roof" (though probably not as much as I am by calling it a "record"). My daughter certainly doesn't have a clue that the basic melody and lyrical intent originated anywhere outside today's radio playlist. But for goodness sake. I know today's music is all about sampling, and certainly the current trend of pop stars singing standards should have warned me that this sort of thing might be coming, but the thought of Tevye the milkman becoming the basis of a hot hit really just cracks me up. If somebody gets it in their head to turn "Sunrise, Sunset" -- a song that reliably made my own personal mother cry -- into a hip-hop remix, I'm just going to have to tell my daughter she can no longer listen to the radio anywhere that I can hear it. Some things you just don't mess with.