After I posted the Three Little Bops video a few days ago, it got me thinking about Stan Freberg's classic Capitol 1950's releases that basically ripped Rock 'n' Roll to pieces. Even so I had to get my hands these platters, and they ain't that bad either! I've taken liberties and altered the Stan Ferberg Capitol 'Any Requests' extended play EAP1-486 and used it for this post.
THE ROCK ISLAND LINE
Stanley Victor Freberg (born August 7, 1926 in Los Angeles)
is a voice actor, comedian, and advertising creative.
In 1950, he scored a huge success with his first recording for Capitol Records, John
and Marsha, a soap-opera parody that consisted of the title characters (both
played by Freberg) repeating each other’s names. In a follow-up he used pedal
steel guitarist Speedy West to parody the 1953 country hit A Dear John
Letter as A Dear John and Marsha Letter.
Throughout the 1950s he made a name for himself writing and performing both
original songs (Tele-vee-shun) and parodies of popular tunes (The Yellow Rose
of Texas, Day-O, Heartbreak Hotel). With fellow voice actors Daws
Butler and June Foray he produced a medieval parody of Dragnet
called St. George and the Dragon-Net. The latter recording was a #1 hit
for four weeks in late 1953.
Freberg’s brilliant, authentic-sounding musical parodies were a by-product of
his collaborations with Billy May and his Capitol Records producer
Ken Nelson. His brilliant 1957 spoof of TV “champagne music” master Lawrence
Welk, Wun’erful, Wun’erful was a true collaboration with May, a
veteran big band musician and jazz arranger (known for his work with Frank
Sinatra among others) who loathed Welk’s corny style. To replicate that
sound, May and some of Hollywood’s finest studio musicians and vocalists worked
to virtually clone Welk’s sound. Billy Liebert, a first-rate accordionist
copied Welk’s own accordion playing. The humour was lost on Welk; Freberg later
recalled the bandleader denying he ever used the term “Wunnerful! Wunnerful!” (Later
the title of Welk’s autobiography).
Another hit song to get the Freberg treatment was the weepy Cry, which
Freberg rendered as Try (“You too can be unhappy… if you try!”) Ray was
furious, until he realized the success of Freberg’s parody was helping sales
and airplay of his own record; Ray and Freberg actually became close friends.
Freberg continued to skewer the advertising industry after the demise of his
radio show, producing Green Christmas in 1958 (again with Butler), a
scathing indictment of the over commercialization of the holiday. Freberg, the
son of a church minister and very religious himself, made sure to point out on
that novelty record “Whose birthday we’re celebrating.” Despite his
Jewish-sounding last name, Freberg is actually a Baptist of Swedish heritage.
“Green Christmas” also foreshadowed his musical review on LP Stan Freberg
Presents: The United States Of America, Volume 1: The Early Years (1961)
in that both combined dialog and song in a musical-like style. Stan
Freberg Presents: The United States of America, Volume 2: The Middle Years was
planned for a release during America’s Bicentennial in 1976 but did not emerge
until 1996.
Edited by foetusized on 30 Sep 2006, 20:15
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Freberg
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