Search - Stan Freberg :: Tip Of The Freberg (Includes Video)

The Complete Genius of Stan Freberg is Now Available!

10/06/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tip Of The Freberg is as advertised -- the definite collection of a true genius of comedy and satire, Stan Freberg.From his song parodies to his satires to his radio and TV commercials, this collection has it all and it is so much fun.The next American Humor award should go to Stan Freberg."

Perhaps America's greatest sattirist and political observer.

09/19/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those of us old enough to remember a little puppet show called, "Time for Beanie," broadcast as far as I know, only in the early days of television in Los Angeles, Stan Freberg honed his comedy skills with some most interesting puppet characters he brought to life as Cecil the Seasick Sea-serpant, Dishonest John ("the world's meanest crumb") along with his fellow puppeteer, Bob Clampett who hired Stan for the show. Together they also created for the show, the lion with false teeth, Mouth-Full-Teeth Keith, Beanie and his uncle, Captain Horatio K. Huffenpuff as the little intrepid group sailed aboard the captains boat, The Leakin' Lena. That said, Freberg supplied this world with such albums as "A Child's Garden of Freberg" and more. His genious took him to the world of advertising and he was a genious there, as well. This set of CDs is, indeed, "The Tip of the Freberg." Long live Freberg."

Classic Song Parodies Just Tip of Classic Freberg

Anthony G Pizza | FL | 01/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Twice during this exceptional, deacdes-spanning box set, Stan Freberg asks you to imagine Lake Michigan filled with hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream from dump trucks, and topped with a cherry flown by a Royal Canadian Air Force plane to cheers of 25,000 extras. He first does it trying to sell radio as an advertising medium ("Doesn't TV stretch the imagination?" "Up to 27 inches.") , one among hundreds of influential, Clio-winning campaigns. The second time, joined by his daughter and legendary voice actress June Foray, he simply asks, "Does Anyone Remember Radio?" Stan Freberg, heard and seen here with a career spanning 4CD box set and accompanying video, is our last link to that legendary theater of the mind. Joined by a troupe of actors including voice-over giants June Foray, Paul Frees, and Daws Butler, and helped by Broadway-brassy Billy May arrangements, Freberg recorded sonically accurate but hilarious pop song parodies. An overechoed "Heartbreak Hotel" features Freberg's ersatz Elvis tearing three pairs of pants and a piano solo "close enough for jazz." "Sh-Boom" features inarticulate doo-woppers coached by a Stanley Kowalksi impersonator. (In his exhaustive liner notes, written with movelty music curator Barrett "Dr. Demento" Hansen, Freberg denies racism motivated his stinging attacks on the then-new music. He said he just liked jazz and wanted to understand the lyrics, which hardly explains his collaboration with Jesse White on hilarious if mean-spirited "The Old Payola Roll Blues".)A "Yellow Rose of Texas" features an overactive snare drum which became a Freberg in-joke on subsequent hit records. Freberg also bit the TV hand which later fed him, parodying Lawrence Welk, Ed Sullivan and, in "Tele-Vee-Shun" practically putting Newton Minnow's "vast wasteland" speech to music. (But the version included here omits Freberg's closing shot, "But is it art?/Don't make me laugh." )"Green Christmas," a huge, controversial 1958 hit, is arguably Freberg's finest moment. Transposing Dickens' "Christmas Carol" to Madison Avenue he successfully combines satire, (hear what happens to Tiny Tim) clever songs and genuine righteous anger to show ad agency Scrooges (who Freberg later served in his own fashion) "who's birthday we're celebrating." Coming when it did at a season in an era dominated by advertising, it's as clever and reverent to the true meaning of Christmas as any traditional holiday song, not to mention twice as funny."Tip of the Freberg" also includes portions of his two remarkable "Presents the United States of America" CDs, recorded nearly 40 years apart. But the last two discs lose some momentum. Apart from a haunting, darkly humored ad aimed at cutting off Vietnam war funding, you hope the milk and chow mein products Freberg wrote for had less filler than their ad upon ad repetition does on Disc 4. (Rhino, whose gathered some remarkable box sets, could cleverly have interspersed Freberg's commercials throughout the set for a more evenly funny listen.) "The Conspiraski Theory" puts three of 1998's infamous news personalities into a smile-inducing but slight ditty, where prime Freberg could have turned it into a grand slam sketch. (That, plus his NPR "Stan Freberg Here" commentaries link him more closely to Fred Allen than Andy Rooney.) Even so, anyone wanting to understand the satirical, pun-filled, even seething 1950s humor - which inspired "Bullwinkle," the Firesign Theater, National Lampoon, David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld and every single commercial you've ever laughed at, should hear Freberg's work. Highly recommended, but if budget prohibits choose any of Freberg's one-disc Capitol collections or multi-disc sets from his radio show."