LJWorld.com

The names became iconic virtually overnight.

Tay Zonday, Sammy Stephens, Harvey Sid Fisher.

It's safe to say each of these "amateur" singers has amassed millions of fans. They are among the most popular voices/faces on YouTube, the video-sharing Web site that Time Magazine dubbed the 2006 invention of the year.

Thanks to YouTube, even the most unmarketable musical act in history has a shot at becoming an instant sensation. Just ask Fisher, whose astrology-based songs and accompanying videos (one for each zodiac sign) have earned him an abundance of Net worth.

"I started out from relative obscurity, and I've achieved total anonymity," Fisher jokes.

"But I'm probably one of the bigger cult successes (on YouTube). If I had a dollar for every time my video was copied, I'd be doing pretty good today."

Fortunately, Fisher has found a way to parlay that into actual money. The Emmy-winning "The Daily Show" cut a deal to use his video clips once a month to coincide with each new astrological cycle.

And for the first time ever, the West Hollywood-based Fisher is embarking on a live tour of the Midwest. The 10-city jaunt will deposit him at Lawrence's Replay Lounge, 946 Mass., on Monday.

The city's ultra-hipster bar might seem an unlikely place for the 66-year-old, tuxedo-clad crooner. But the concept makes more sense when learning he will be backed by Iowa City folk-punk band Miracles of God.

"They e-mailed me asking me when I would be coming to Iowa City to play," Fisher recalls. "I said, 'Book me and I'm there.' They did, and they booked me in nine other cities, too."

This won't be the first gig Fisher has performed at atypical venues.

"It's pretty young for the most part," he says of the those customarily attending his shows. "Usually, when I play a club it's Generation X being entertained by Generation Ex-Lax."

The live show

Fisher seems to be taking it in stride ... like any "ontologically giddy Sagittaria" should.

"I'm planning on making this tour my last and final search for a girlfriend. I don't know how many years I have left, and it's time I found that last girlfriend that will be with me to the end," he says.

His onstage plan of attack involves a couple of solo numbers accompanied by just his acoustic guitar. Then Miracles of God will back him up during his astrological tunes. (Sample lyrics: "I love fantasizing / My world is on a swing / If Dreamland had a ruler / Pisces would be king.")

He'll then be joined by new friends Sarah and Latisha, who will help flesh out tracks from his "Battle of the Sexes" CD.

"It's an album of duets with couples fighting," he describes.

The ladies might also provide interpretive dancing to complement the astrological ditties - as previously seen in Fisher's YouTube videos. Fisher reveals those signature works were shot in 1989 at a public access station in Los Angeles. (The wipe effects alone are a dead giveaway to the era of production.)

Even before YouTube, the songs were developing a healthy cult around L.A.

He recalls, "I was at a party once with the weird doctor guy from 'Jurassic Park' - Jeff Goldblum. He comes up to me and says, 'Harvey, wow. My sister loves your astrology songs. Can we please go to the phone and call her? She'd love that.'"

Star in the making

Fisher actually started his rise to fame on the East Coast.

"My mother forced me to go through six piano teachers, which didn't do any good," he says of his Manhattan upbringing.

In the 1960s, Fisher began as a hairstylist at a 24-hour beauty parlor where he "used to work on showgirls, Playboy bunnies and ladies in real estate who owned the street corners and doorways. They'd come in sometimes two or three times a night for a comb-out."

During this stretch, he became poker buddies with hit songwriter Bob Hilliard ("Our Day Will Come," "Moonlight Gambler").

"I thought, 'Hey, I could do this. I could write songs,'" Fisher says.

Coupled with advice from people who kept telling him he should be an actor thanks to his dapper good looks, Fisher decided to give showbiz a shot. He moved to Los Angeles and began finding bit parts on episodic television. A quick check on the Internet Movie Database finds Fisher with 21 TV and film credits to his name, including "I Dream of Jeannie," "Kojak" and "Lethal Weapon 3."

Now on pension from the Screen Actors Guild, Fisher is devoting most of his attention to his late-blooming musical career.

Is he aware of the "novelty value" of his songs in this post-modern era of heightened cynicism?

He says, "I know there are people making fun of me. I don't mind. If you go for the gas, you got to go for the ride.

"People who aren't into astrology, they're saying, 'Who is this guy? He's got a terrible voice. He can't sing.' Like I tell the audience: I can't sing that great. I don't play guitar that great. But I'm the only guy who knows the words to these songs."