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Critic's Review
Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide
Stan Freberg is one of America's National Treasures. His work on radio and television is unprecedented in terms of innovation and ingenuity. Not only was he the last comedy star on CBS Radio with the 15 installments of the Stan Freberg Show, his other talents were as a best-selling recording artist and advertising genius whose talents, skills and concepts have never been equaled or surpassed. Freberg's entry in the Capitol Collectors Series provides over an hour-and-ten-minutes from his luminous output for the label in the 1950s. This disc contains 21 of Freberg's parodies, many of which sold well into the millions and became Top 40 platters. That is quite a feat during the burgeoning days of rock & roll, when his competition were the actual subjects of his sonic spoofs, such as Elvis Presley -- the target of "Heartbreak Hotel" -- or even Eartha Kitt, who was none too pleased with his desecration of her hit "C'est Si Bon." One of the elements in Freberg's success is the honesty and above all else, the accuracy with which he takes on his subject matter. In terms of deflating musical icons nothing was sacred, as evidenced by the lampoons of Lawrence Welk ("Wun'erful, Wun'erful"), Mitch Miller ("Yellow Rose of Texas") and genres as dissimilar as doo wop ("Sh-Boom") and skiffle ("Rock Island Line"). He breaks into the medium of television, which was in its infancy at the time, poking at soap operas ("John & Marsha") and especially the cut-and-dry deadpan of Jack Webb on "St. George and the Dragonet," "Christmas Dragnet" and "Little Blue Riding Hood." There are also plenty of originals including "That's My Boy," "Green Chri$tma$" and "Tele-vee-shun." All said, the Capitol Collectors Series is a great place for the curious consumer, while Tip of the Freberg: The Stan Freberg Collection 1951-1998 (1999) is a multimedia four-CD/VHS tape package essential for enthusiasts.
