Biography
Stanley Victor Freberg (born August 7, 1926 in Los Angeles) is a voice actor, comedian, and advertising creative.
Read More...
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 byproduct 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 humor 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 Chri$tma$ in 1958 (again with Butler), a scathing indictment of the overcommercialization 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 Chri$tma$" 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.
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
Top Tracks
Total plays on Last.fm over the last 6 months- Banana Boat (Day-O) - (3:27) - 809 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes1.29 USD- Ringtone
- Heartbreak Hotel - (2:17) - 564 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- St. George And The Dragonet - (3:23) - 432 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.89 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.69 USD- Ringtone
- Nuttin' For Christmas - (2:24) - 585 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.89 USD
7digital
Juno1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- Rock Island Line - (3:19) - 245 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- John And Marsha - (2:27) - 227 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- Christmas Dragnet - (6:39) - 228 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.89 USD
7digital
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- The Great Pretender - (3:21) - 172 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- Green Chri$tma$ - (6:52) - 125 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.89 USD
7digital
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- Green Christmas - (6:54) - 150 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes1.29 USD- Ringtone
- The Yellow Rose Of Texas - (3:22) - 124 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- Little Blue Riding Hood - (3:28) - 129 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.69 USD- Ringtone
- Tele-Vee-Shun - (3:18) - 110 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- Sh-Boom - (3:30) - 98 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- The Night Before Christmas - (3:32) - 100 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital
iTunes1.29 USD- Ringtone
- The Boston Tea Party - (1:37) - 77 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes1.29 USD- Ringtone
- Christmas Dragnet (Yulenet) Part 1 - (3:19) - 60 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes- Ringtone
- I've Got You Under My Skin - (2:18) - 68 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes0.99 USD- Ringtone
- Overture - (2:18) - 49 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP30.99 USD
7digital1.49 USD
iTunes1.29 USD- Ringtone
- The Banana Boat Song - (3:28) - 65 plays
- Download This Track
Amazon MP3
7digital
iTunes- Ringtone
From Radio.com
-
KLUV Christmas BONUS – “Green Christmas”
December 25, 2011

Kip Addotta
Allan Sherman
Spike Jones & His City Slickers
Spike Jones
Bryan Bowers
Ray Stevens
Ogden Edsl
Sheb Wooley
Sparkle Moore
The Frantics