Video: Danny Sanderson with his band Kaveret in a 1975 documentary.
One of the most influential performers and songwriters on the Israeli cultural scene, Danny Sanderson is both a legendary and contemporary pop icon. He is a founding member of the band Kaveret, dubbed “the Beatles of Israel” and a top concert ticket-seller for over 25 years and through five reunions. Danny Sanderson also formed the groups Gazoz and Doda, both of which are considered among the cornerstones of Israeli rock music.
Sanderson was born in Kfar Blum in Israel, grew up in Haifa and Savion, and at the age of 10 moved with his family to the U.S., where he lived until he was 18. Sanderson was drawn to music early in life, and played in several rock bands, influenced mainly by mid-60s American pop and rock. At the age of 18 he was conscripted to the Israeli Defense Forces and played guitar with the Nachal military singing band. Sanderson was mainly noted at the time as a phenomenal guitar player, but soon also gained a reputation as a composer and arranger.
In 1972, along with friends Alon Oleartchik, Efraim Shamir, Gidi Gov, Meir Feningstein and later Yoni Rechter and Yitzchak Klepter, Sanderson founded a band called Kaveret (“Beehive”). The original idea for the band, formulated by Oleartchik and Sanderson, was to create a poprock operatic show, centered on the fictional figure “Poogy”, which Feningstein and Sanderson created. The operatic show failed to catch on, but when separated into individual songs the band became an instant hit in Israel, catapulting Kaveret into the position of the most successful pop-rock band in Israel then and since. Sanderson was the dominant force in Kaveret, writing the music and lyrics, filled with humor, to most of the songs, making him the leading songwriter of his generation. In 1976, after three albums and a short tour of the U.S., many of the band members were eager to embark on their own individual careers so Kaveret disbanded. However, it has had several reunion tours, resulting in two more albums.
Sanderson took a break from music to write a nonsense book (Nekhira Pumbit, “A Public Snore”), and then created two more bands that also demonstrated his wit: Gazoz (a type of aerated drink), which released two albums; and Doda (“Aunt”), which had several hits. He then embarked on a successful solo recording career, resulting in 11 albums, most recently Congo Blue, a more somber album recorded in response to the death of his wife. He has produced several albums for other Israeli performers and has succeeded in other media, writing two more books and appearing on Israeli television as musician, comedian and host. Sanderson’s prolific and successful career has won him a prominent place in Israel’s cultural history.
