Meet The Singing CPA

There was a time when accountants were unfairly stereotyped as boring people. Although those days are thankfully gone, we still get a charge whenever we hear of a CPA who turns the old chestnut on its head by moonlighting as a performing artist.

A year ago this time, auditor-playwright James Rasheed's accounting-themed drama, "Professional Skepticism," caught our fancy. This time it's Steven Zelin, "The Singing CPA."

That's the title of Zelin's third music CD, released last month on Zelin's own label. Covering the release party, The Trusted Professional, the newspaper of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, wrote:

Zelin was a CPA at a Big Four firm for eight years before he caught the songwriting bug. But he hasn't left the profession behind – he sings about it all the time…

The newspaper observed that the release party in a Manhattan book store marked a change of pace from Zelin's tradition of performing solo inside a post office on April 15, "to entertain last-minute taxpayers."

Most Zelin compositions are funny send-ups of well-known pop songs, with different lyrics that focus on accounting. There is "My CPA," to the tune of "YMCA" by the Village People; and "A Charitable Contribution (Makes the Tax Bill Go Down)," based on "A Spoonful of Sugar…" from the Julie Andrews film, Mary Poppins.

Tax Song Trilogy [The Trusted Professional]