"Ariel" is a hit single written and performed by

Dean Friedman Dean Friedman (born May 23, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter who plays piano, keyboard, guitar and other instruments, including the harmonica. Although considered a one-hit wonder in the US, he has had multiple singles chart in other terr ...

, released in April 1977. It was the first of two hits from Friedman's eponymous debut LP. "Ariel," however, was his only hit in North America. It reached number 26 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, number 17 on the '' Cashbox'' Top 100, and number 19 in Canada. The song spent 22 weeks on the Billboard chart and 24 weeks on ''Cashbox.'' "Ariel" has been described as a "quirkily irresistible and uncategorizable pop song about a free-spirited, music-loving, vegetarian

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish girl" from

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

, where Friedman grew up. The lyrics describe the young girl from "deep in the bosom of suburbia," who sang "mighty fine," with "'

Tears on My Pillow "Tears on My Pillow" is a doo-wop song written by Sylvester Bradford and Al Lewis in 1958. The composition was first recorded by Little Anthony and the Imperials on End Records and was that group's debut recording under that name. Their origi ...

' and '

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's s ...

'". It describes the girl Ariel, "standing by the ince dismantledwaterfall at

Paramus Park Paramus Park is a shopping mall located in Paramus, New Jersey, United States. It opened in 1974, is owned by Brookfield Properties, and has a gross leasable area (GLA) of . Description Paramus Park is located on a plot of land between the no ...

", one of the many shopping malls in Paramus. The quarters she was collecting for "friends of BAI" refers to the New York radio station

WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. ...

, and their listener association, while the song also makes reference to "channel 2," which refers to local

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

flagship station

WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station WL ...

. Chicago radio superstation WLS, which gave the song much airplay, ranked "Ariel" as the 60th most popular hit of 1977. It reached as high as number four on their survey of August 20, 1977.

Controversy

The record label (Lifesong) that produced "Ariel" insisted Friedman change the song's second verse, which refers to the

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous Ariel as "a Jewish girl", believing that radio stations might use it as an excuse not to play the record. The management company received threats from the

Jewish Defense League The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish far-right religious-political organization in the United States and Canada, whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". It has been classified as "a right w ...

protesting against the edit in the single, which also varied from the album version by having the third verse removed to make the single shorter for radio.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links