Stan Freberg was a comedian, a voice actor, a director, a writer and all around silly person who stuck his fingers in many facets of entertainment from the mid 1940’s until his passing in 2015. Chances are you don’t know his name, but you certainly have come across something he’s done; Voice work for Looney Tunes, hosting one of the last radio shows on American airwaves during it's golden era, basically inventing the comedic commercial, which won him 21 Clio awards (the marketing people awards), and recording a comedy album revered by the likes of Steven Spielberg and Paul McCartney (but we’ll talk about that one another time). Even though all of that is impressive, Freberg shined the brightest when recording singles for Capitol in the 1950's. His first success with the label was with a single he recorded called “John & Marsha”, a take off of sappy soap opera romance, and hit number 21 on the Billboard charts. With that success in mind, he would spend the rest of the 1950's warping Capitol Tower to his likeness.
The track that really got me hip to Stan Freberg was his rendition of the Calypso classic “ Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)". Many of us know the Harry Belafonte recording of this song (*Insert Beetlejuice Scene*), but Freberg takes it in a new direction. Freberg, the singer, is arguing with his beatnik bongo player about screaming "Day O", so much that his bongo player will leave if Freberg doesn’t stop yelling. The only way Freberg can continue with his yelling is for him to rush out into the hallway, do the “Day O” part, and run back into the studio. I won’t spoil the end, but it’s easily one of Freberg’s funniest records. Many of Freberg’s records include some sort of instrumentalist feeling he can do and play what he wants while pissing Freberg off in the process; The aforementioned “Banana Boat Song”, a choir that changes songs halfway though “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, An obnoxiously loud snare drummer on “Yellow Rose of Texas”, or A Jazz pianist wanting to break loose and cut on “The Great Pretender”. Freberg hit it right on the nail with these songs because every musician who has ever lived will add more to a song, whether you like it or not. I can assure that any of the session musicians on these tracks have been found guilty of doing this at one point or another. The whole idea of having a man trying to record a record at the world famous Capitol Records in Los Angeles, and being met with insolent and uncooperative musicians is not only brilliant, but downright hilarious.
Regardless of obnoxious musicians, Stan Freberg poked fun at many popular records at the time in some way shape or form. “Try” is a sendoff of Johnnie Ray’s “Cry”, “A Dear John & Marsha Letter” rips not only on himself, but country record “A Dear John Letter”, but what would give Freberg the greatest results was his poking fun at the biggest fad plaguing society at the time, Rock N Roll. Many of these singles rip hard on Rock n Roll; “Sh Boom” but with mumbled lyrics to create an “authentic” Doo Wop record, “Heartbreak Hotel” with excessive slap back echo while the singer keeps dancing and ripping his pants (like certain a rock singer), or “Wide-Screen Mama Blues” but with undecipherable lyrics. Being such an easy target at the time, how can you not parody this new music?
If Stan Freberg wasn’t poking fun at music, he would poke fun at something else hugely popular at the time. Look at “St George & The Dragonet” from 1953. At the time, “Dragnet” was one of the most popular radio shows and TV shows in the country, so how do you not satire that? Instead of a gritty story of crime in Los Angeles, it’s now a story of Knight’s fighting dragons in the Middle Ages. I can’t recommend this record enough, this is the closest you will ever get to a full fledged Looney Tunes cartoon on record. First, the writing is superb and requires many listens to appreciate all the humor. Second, the cast doesn’t just feature Stan Freberg, but a who's who of legendary voice actors, like Daws Butler (Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound) and June Foray (Granny, Rocky The Flying Squirrel). This record was such a success that Freberg did another Christmas themed Dragnet as a followup. This one’s a bit more straightforward as it's a direct parody of the show, but it’s still a funny record to throw on at your next Christmas party.
The brilliance of these records is that Stan Freberg was able to create his own twisted world on record with silly voices, insolent musicians, crazy effects and fantastic production. Only a genius like Stan Freberg could create and replicate certain styles without having his records just sound sloppy. It takes a genius to arrange every one of these musical fall offs. Looking at "The Great Pretender" again, notice all the instances with the piano that either goes off from the music, holds out his passage, or speeds up. All of these elements had to have been heavily arranged to get this result and get the proper comedic timing so the humor doesn't fall flat, and only someone like Stan Freberg could do it. Weird Al Yankovic has that same sense of timing with his work, but I notice it more in his music videos. While extremely impressive, it's not same as doing it only with sound on a record. Stan Freberg took the idea of satire and made it look so unintelligent, that it was intelligent, and only a true genius could pull that off.
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