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{{Short description|American actor and entertainer (1926–2015)}}
[[California]] native '''Stan Freberg''' began as a [[voice actor]] in a number of old-time [[radio show]]s. During the [[1950s]] he made a name for himself writing and performing both original songs ("Television") and [[parody|parodies]] of popular tunes ("[[The Yellow Rose of Texas]]", "[[Day-O]]", "[[Heartbreak Hotel]]") and radio shows (''[[John and Marsha]]'', ''[[St. George and the Dragon-Net]]'').
{{More citations needed|date=August 2015}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Stan Freberg
| image = Stan Freberg 1956.jpg
| alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption = Freberg in 1956
| birth_name = Stanley <!--- spelling is correct, born with "Friberg" instead of "Freberg", and with no middle name --->Friberg<!--- spelling is correct, born with "Friberg" instead of "Freberg", and with no middle name --->
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|8|7}}
| birth_place = [[Pasadena, California]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|4|7|1926|8|7}}
| death_place = [[Santa Monica, California]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&q=stan+freberg+cemetery&pg=PA259|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.|first=Scott|last=Wilson|year= 2016|page=259|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1476625997|via=Google Books}}</ref>
| other_names = Stanley Freberg<br />Stan Friberg<br />Stanley Victor Freberg
| occupation = {{hlist|Actor|author|comedian|musician|radio personality|puppeteer|advertising creative director}}
| years_active = 1943–2014
| spouse = {{unbulleted list
| {{marriage|Donna Freberg|1959|2000|reason=d.}}
| {{marriage|Betty Hunter Freberg|2001}}<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/influential-satirist-ad-maverick-stan-freberg-dies-88-n337511 | title=Influential Satirist, Ad Maverick Stan Freberg Dies at 88 | work=NBC News | date=7 April 2015 | access-date=26 May 2015}}</ref>
}}
| children = 2, including [[Donavan Freberg]]
| awards = {{unbulleted list|21 [[Clio Awards]]|3 [[Emmy Awards]]|[[Grammy Award]]|[[Inkpot Award]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.comic-con.org/awards/inkpot|title=Inkpot Award|date=December 6, 2012|website=Comic-zon.org|access-date=August 28, 2021}}</ref>|[[Winsor McCay Award]]}}
| module = {{Infobox musical artist|embed=yes
| background = solo_singer
| genre = {{hlist|[[Pop music|Pop]]|[[Jazz]]|[[Satire]]}}
| instrument = [[Vocals]]
}}
}}
'''Stan Freberg''' (born '''Stanley <!--- spelling is correct, born with "Friberg" instead of "Freberg", and with no middle name --->Friberg<!--- spelling is correct, born with "Friberg" instead of "Freberg", and with no middle name --->'''; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, puppeteer, radio personality and advertising creative director.
 
His best-known works include "[[St. George and the Dragonet]]", ''[[Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume One: The Early Years|Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America]]'', his role on the television series ''[[Time for Beany]]'', multiple characters in the [[Looney Tunes]] such as [[Pete Puma]] and [[Hubie and Bertie|Bertie]], and a number of classic television commercials.
His popularity landed him his own program, ''[[The Stan Freberg Show]]'' on [[CBS]] Radio, in [[1957]]. The show failed to attract a sponsor, however, at least in part because Freberg did not want to be associated with the [[tobacco]] companies who had sponsored [[Jack Benny]], whose time slot he inherited. In lieu of actual [[advertisement]]s, Freberg mocked commercials in general by "advertising" such products as "Puffed Grass" ("It's good for Bossie, it's good for me and you!"), "Food" ("If you haven't any teeth you can gum your food with your gum, gum, gummy-gum gum"), and himself ("Freberg - the foaming comedian! Bobba bobba bom bom bom" - a parody of a well-known [[Ajax Laundry Detergent]] commercial). The lack of sponsorship forced the cancellation of the show after a run of only fifteen episodes.
 
==Early and personal life==
Freberg continued to skewer the advertising industry, however, producing ''[[Green Christmas|Green Chri$tma$]]'' in [[1959]], a scathing indictment of the overcommercialization of the holiday. ''Green Chri$tma$'' foreshadowed [[1961]]'s ''[[Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Part One]]'' in that both combined dialog and song in almost musical-like style. (One can almost imagine [[John Hancock]] and [[Ben Franklin]] performing the big [[Broadway]] finish on "[[A Man Can't Be Too Careful What He Signs These Days]]".)
Freberg was born Stanley <!--- spelling is correct, born with "Friberg" instead of "Freberg" and with no middle name --->Friberg<!--- spelling is correct, born with "Friberg" instead of "Freberg", and with no middle name ---><ref name=car1>{{cite web|url=http://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/stanley_friberg_born_1926_1027227 |title=Stanley Friberg, Born 08/07/1926 in California |website=CaliforniaBirthIndex.org |date=August 7, 1926 |access-date=2014-01-05}}</ref> on August 7, 1926 in [[Pasadena, California]],<ref name="LarkinGE">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0851129390|page=914}}</ref> the son of Evelyn Dorothy (née Conner), a housewife, and Victor Richard Friberg (later Freberg), a [[Baptist]] minister.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> Freberg was of Swedish and Irish descent.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-02-18-ca-43621-story.html |title=Stan Freberg, a Sage for the Masses, Returns to Public Eye |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=September 3, 2011 |first=Allan |last=Jalon |date=February 18, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Frankel |first=Mark |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20120238,00.html |title=Stan Freberg Pens a Memoir About His Strange Career Move – from Comedy to Commercials |website=People.com |access-date=2014-01-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73650091.html?dids=73650091:73650091&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+14%2C+1988&author=Jonathan+Yardley&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Freberg%2C+Laughing+All+the+Way&pqatl=google |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130620020701/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73650091.html?dids=73650091:73650091&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+14,+1988&author=Jonathan+Yardley&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Freberg,+Laughing+All+the+Way&pqatl=google |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 20, 2013 |title=Freberg, Laughing All the Way |website=Pqasb.pqarchiver.com |date=December 14, 1988 |access-date=2014-01-05 |first=Jonathan |last=Yardley}}</ref>
 
He was drafted in the [[US Army]] from 1945 to 1947 where he served in [[Special Services (entertainment)|Special Services]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://laughterlog.com/2009/03/21/stan-freberg/|title=Performers: Stan Freberg|website=Laughterlog.com|date=March 20, 2009|access-date=October 24, 2019}}</ref> attached to the Medical Corps at [http://militarymuseum.org/McCormackGenHosp.html McCornack General Hospital] in Pasadena, California.
Freberg seemingly mistrusted [[television]]; in one of his best-known skits, he used a series of [[sound effect]]s to simulate draining [[Lake Michigan]], filling it with [[hot chocolate]] (complete with [[whipped cream]]), and dropping a ten-ton [[cherry]] on top courtesy of the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] (with 25,000 extras cheering them on). The tag line to the skit: "Let's see them do that on TV." Even so he produced commercials for products such as [[Contadina Tomato Paste]] ("Who put eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can?"), [[Geno's Pizza Rolls]] (friend and [[science fiction]] icon [[Ray Bradbury]] proclaimed them "the food of the future") and [[Sunsweet Prunes]] ("Today the pits, tomorrow the wrinkles"). Today, these advertisements are considered classics by many critics, and Freberg is usually credited as being the first person to successfully introduce [[humor]] into television advertising.
 
Freberg's work reflected both his gentle sensitivity (despite his liberal use of biting satire and [[parody]]) and his refusal to accept alcohol and tobacco manufacturers as sponsors—an impediment to his radio career when he took over for [[Jack Benny]] on [[CBS]] radio. As Freberg explained to Rusty Pipes:
Freberg is still actively doing adverting and other projects today. In [[1996]] he released ''[[Stan Freberg Presents The United States Of America, Part Two]]''. He is most visible these days as the host of a [[syndication|syndicated]] anthology of old-time radio shows, ''[[When Radio Was]]''.
{{blockquote|After I replaced Jack Benny in 1957, they were unable to sell me with spot announcements in the show. That would mean that every three minutes I'd have to drop a commercial in. So I said, "Forget it. I want to be sponsored by one person", like Benny was, by American Tobacco or State Farm Insurance, except that I wouldn't let them sell me to American Tobacco. I refused to let them sell me to any cigarette company.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cosmik.com/aa-october99/stan_freberg.html |title=An audience with Stan Freberg |publisher=Cosmik Debris |year=1999 |access-date=February 8, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215231809/http://cosmik.com/aa-october99/stan_freberg.html |archive-date=February 15, 2009 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>}}
 
Freberg's first wife, Donna, died in 2000. He had two children from that marriage, Donna Jean and [[Donavan Freberg|Donavan]]. He married Betty Hunter in 2001.
In addition to his work in radio and advertising, Freberg has also voiced a number of [[animation|animated]] [[cartoon]] characters over the years. He often found himself paired off with other talents such as [[Mel Blanc]] at studios like [[Warner Bros.]], where the two men performed such pairs as the [[Goofy Gophers]], [[Hubie and Bertie]], and [[Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier]]. He has also worked with [[Walt Disney Studios]] on movies, such as ''[[Lady and the Tramp]]'', and television projects, such as ''[[The Wuzzles]]''.
 
==Animation==
[[Category:1926 births|Freberg, Stan]]
Freberg began his career doing impersonations on [[Cliffie Stone]]'s radio show in 1943.<ref>{{cite book
| first= Joel
| last= Whitburn
| year= 2003
| title= Top Pop Singles 1955–2002
| page= [https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whitbur/page/265 265]
| publisher= Record Research, Inc
| ___location= Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
| isbn= 0898201551
| url= https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whitbur/page/265
}}</ref> Freberg was employed as a voice actor in animation shortly after graduating from [[Alhambra High School (Alhambra, California)|Alhambra High School]]. He began at Warner Brothers in 1944 by getting on a bus and asking the driver to let him off "in Hollywood". As he describes in his autobiography, ''It Only Hurts When I Laugh'', he got off the bus and found a sign that said "talent agency". He walked in, and the agents there arranged for him to audition for Warner Brothers cartoons where he was promptly hired.<ref name=laugh>{{harvnb|Freberg|1988|pp=32–36}}</ref> Thus began Freberg's professional career in entertainment, which lasted for more than 70 years, all the way up to his death.
 
His first notable cartoon voice work was in a Warner Brothers cartoon called ''For He's a Jolly Good Fala'', which was recorded but never filmed (due to the death of [[Fala (dog)|Fala]]'s owner, President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]),<ref name=komorowski>[https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-clampett-freberg-lorre-connection/ The Clampett-Freberg-Lorre Connection]
</ref> followed by ''Roughly Squeaking'' (1946) as Bertie; and in 1947, he was heard in ''It's a Grand Old Nag'' (Charlie Horse), produced and directed by [[Bob Clampett]] for [[Republic Pictures]];{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} ''[[The Goofy Gophers]]'' (Tosh),<ref name=komorowski/> and ''[[One Meat Brawl]]'' (Grover Groundhog and [[Walter Winchell]]).
 
Freberg voiced the character of Junyer Bear, but the role was actually created by actor [[Kent Rogers]] in ''[[Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears]]'' (1944).<ref name=laugh/> After Rogers was killed during [[World War II]], Freberg assumed the role of Junyer Bear in [[Chuck Jones]]' [[Looney Tunes]] cartoon ''What's Brewin', Bruin?'' (1948). This featured [[Chuck Jones|Jones]]' version of [[The Three Bears (Looney Tunes)|The Three Bears]].
 
He often found himself paired with [[Mel Blanc]] while at [[Warner Bros.]], where the two men performed such pairs as the mice [[Hubie and Bertie]], the [[Goofy Gophers]] Mac and Tosh, and [[Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0292677/|title=Stan Freberg|website=IMDb.com|access-date=October 28, 2017}}</ref> In 1952, he was the voice of [[Friz Freleng]]'s "Dumb Dog" in ''[[Foxy by Proxy]]'', who meets up with a disguised Bugs Bunny wearing a fox suit. He was the voice of [[Pete Puma]] in the 1952 cartoon ''[[Rabbit's Kin]]'', in which he did an impression of an early [[Frank Fontaine]] characterization (which later became Fontaine's "Crazy Guggenheim" character).{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
Freberg's work as a voice actor for [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions]] included the role of Mr. Busy the Beaver in ''[[Lady and the Tramp]]'' (1955), and he did voice work in ''[[Susie the Little Blue Coupe]]'' and ''[[Lambert the Sheepish Lion]]''. He received screen credit for his voice work on ''[[Three Little Bops]]'' (1957), where he voiced all the characters and sang the titular song. Freberg's interpretation of Pete Puma also provided the basis for [[Daws Butler]]'s voice of Sam, the orange cat paired with [[Sylvester the Cat|Sylvester]] in the Academy Award-nominated short ''[[Mouse and Garden]]'' (1960). He voiced Cage E. Coyote, the father of [[Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner|Wile E. Coyote]], in the 2000 short ''Little Go Beep''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdn996_little-go-beep_shortfilms |title=Little Go Beep |website=Dailymotion.com |date=June 12, 2010 |access-date=2015-08-17}}</ref>
 
==Films==
Freberg was cast to sing the part of the Jabberwock in the song "Beware the Jabberwock" for Disney's ''[[Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'', with the Rhythmaires and [[Daws Butler]]. Written by [[Don Raye]] and [[Gene de Paul]], the song was a musical rendering of the poem "[[Jabberwocky]]" from Lewis Carroll's ''[[Through the Looking-Glass]]''. The song was not included in the final film, but a demo recording was included in the 2004 and 2010 DVD releases of the film.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
Freberg made his film debut in the comedy ''[[Callaway Went Thataway]]'' (1951), a satirical spoof on the marketing of Western stars (apparently inspired by the TV success of [[Hopalong Cassidy]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Hollywood Songsters: Garland to O'Connor, Volume 2|author1=James Robert Parish |author2=Michael R. Pitts |publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415943338|date=2003|page=441}}</ref>). Freberg costarred with [[Mala Powers]] in ''Geraldine'' (1954) as sobbing singer Billy Weber, enabling him to reprise his satire on vocalist [[Johnnie Ray]] (see below).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/50848|title=Geraldine (1954)|publisher=American Film Institute (AFI) catalog of feature films, the first 100 years 1893–1993}}</ref> In 1963's ''[[It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]'', Freberg appeared in a non-speaking role as the Deputy Sheriff and acted as the voice of a dispatcher.
 
Contrary to popular belief, [[George Lucas]] called upon Freberg, not [[Mel Blanc]], to audition for the voice of the character [[C-3PO]] for the 1977 film ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]''. After he and many others auditioned for the part, Freberg suggested that Lucas use mime actor [[Anthony Daniels]]' voice.<ref name="Noel">{{cite web |url=http://www.harrisonline.com/audio/noelblanc.mp3 |title=Interview with Mel Blanc's son Noel |website=Harrisonline.com |access-date=September 27, 2012 |archive-date=February 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207002714/http://www.harrisonline.com/audio/noelblanc.mp3 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
 
==Capitol Records==
===Early releases===
Freberg was one of the talents recruited by [[Capitol Records]] when it launched its spoken-word division.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Scott|first=Keith|title=The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose|date=2014|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-1466867437}}</ref> He began on February 10, 1951, and produced satirical recordings about [[popular culture]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sterling|first=Christopher H.|title=Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set|date=2005|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn|isbn=1579582494|___location=New York|pages=1007}}</ref> One of his most notable releases was "[[John and Marsha]]", a soap opera parody that consisted of the title characters (both played by Freberg) doing nothing but repeating each other's names (with intonations to match the moods).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.povonline.com/freberg/Freberg01.htm |title=Stan Freberg |publisher=Mark Evanier |website=Povonline.com |access-date=February 8, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219083738/http://www.povonline.com/freberg/Freberg01.htm |archive-date=February 19, 2009 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref name=pc1>{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19745/m1/ |title=Show 1 – Play A Simple Melody: American pop music in the early fifties. [Part 1&#93; : UNT Digital Library |website=Digital.library.unt.edu |access-date=September 27, 2012}}</ref> Some radio stations refused to play "John & Marsha", believing it to be an actual romantic conversation between two real people. In a 1954 follow-up, he used [[pedal steel guitar]]ist [[Speedy West]] to satirize the 1953 [[Ferlin Husky]] country hit, "A Dear John Letter", as "A Dear John and Marsha Letter" (Capitol 2677). West had played on the Husky hit recording. {{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} A seasonal recording, "The Night Before Christmas"/"Nuttin' for Christmas", made in 1955, still remains a cult classic.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
Another hit to receive the Freberg treatment was Johnnie Ray's weepy "[[Cry (Churchill Kohlman song)|Cry]]", which Freberg rendered as "Try", exaggerating Ray's histrionic vocal style.<ref name=pc2>{{Gilliland |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19746/m1/ |title=Show 2 – Play A Simple Melody: American pop music in the early fifties. [Part 2]: UNT Digital Library |website=Digital.library.unt.edu |date= |access-date=September 27, 2012}}</ref> Johnnie Ray was furious until he realized the success of Freberg's 1952 parody was actually increasing sales and [[airplay]] of his own record.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mp3lyrics.org/s/stan-freberg/try/Rec |title=Notes about Try by Stan Freberg (note {3}) |access-date=2012-01-03 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113135527/http://www.mp3lyrics.org/s/stan-freberg/try/Rec |archive-date=January 13, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>According to Freberg, years later Ray told him, "I wanted to thank you for keeping my career going for another five or ten years because long after DJs stopped playing my records, they would continue to play you lampooning me". Hansen, Barry and Freberg, Stan, ''Tip of the Freberg: The Stan Freberg Collection 1951–1998'' (1999), {{ISBN|0737900601}}, notes booklet, p. 10.</ref> Freberg reported getting more angry feedback for this than from any of his other parodies.<ref name=pc2/>
 
With [[Daws Butler]] and [[June Foray]], Freberg produced his 1953 ''[[Dragnet (franchise)|Dragnet]]'' parody, "[[St. George and the Dragonet]]", a [[Number-one hits of 1953 (United States)|No. 1 hit]] for four weeks in October 1953. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.<ref name="The Book of Golden Discs">{{cite book
| first= Joseph
| last= Murrells
| year= 1978
| title= The Book of Golden Discs
| edition= 2nd
| publisher= Barrie and Jenkins Ltd
| ___location= London
| pages= [https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/64 64–65]
| isbn= 0214205126
| url= https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/64
}}</ref>
 
After "[[I've Got You Under My Skin]]" (1951), he followed with more popular musical satires, such as "[[Sh-Boom]]" (1954), a parody of the song recorded by [[The Chords (American band)|The Chords]]. At the end, he yells "STELLA!" at a woman, imitating [[Marlon Brando]] in ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire (1951 film)|A Streetcar Named Desire]]''. The B side was a parody of the [[Eartha Kitt]] record "[[C'est si bon]]", broadcast in 1955 on the TV show ''[[Sam and Friends]]''.<ref name=CSB>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3297222/|title=C'est Si Bon|date=October 28, 2017|access-date=October 28, 2017|website=IMDb.com}}</ref> Other songs include "[[The Yellow Rose of Texas (song)|The Yellow Rose of Texas]]" (1955),<ref name=pc1/> where a "Yankee" snare drummer gets out of hand on the recording; "Rock Around [[Stephen Foster]]", a parody of recordings by [[Bill Haley]] and others in which a music arranger (Freberg) tries with mixed results to get a chorus to perform a medley of Foster's standards in rock and roll style at one point adding Foster's lyrics to Haley's arrangement of "[[Shake, Rattle and Roll]]"; "[[Rock Island Line]]", based on the 1955 [[Lonnie Donegan]] skiffle version, with interruptions by [[Peter Leeds]]; and a spoof of [[The Platters]]' hit "[[The Great Pretender]]" (1956).
 
He recorded a parody of [[Elvis Presley]]'s first chart record, "[[Heartbreak Hotel]]". In Freberg's version, the [[Echoplex|echo effect]] goes out of control, and "Elvis" eventually rips his tight jeans during the performance.<ref name=pc7>{{Gilliland |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19754/ |title=Show 7 – The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the rock-a-billies. [Part 1] }}</ref>
 
With Foray, he recorded "The Quest for Bridey Hammerschlaugen", a spoof of ''The Search for [[Bridey Murphy]]'' by Morey Bernstein, a 1956 book on [[past life regression|hypnotic regression to a past life]], and an LP of the first actual hypnosis session.<ref>''The Search for Bridey Murphy'', Research Recordings No. 101 (1956). LP with excerpts of the actual first hypnosis session. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue4t58yk2Gs Part 1]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UrxKTkki9c Part 2]. Accessed November 13, 2022.</ref>
 
==="The Great Pretender" and "Banana Boat Song"===
Freberg used a [[beatnik]] musician theme in his 1956 parody of "[[The Great Pretender]]", the hit by [[The Platters]]—who, like Ray (see above) and Belafonte and Welk (see both below), were not pleased.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} At that time, when it was still hoped that musical standards might be preserved, it was quite permissible to ridicule the ludicrous, as Freberg had obviously thought when he parodied Presley. The pianist in Freberg's parody, a devotee of [[Erroll Garner]] and George Shearing, rebels against playing a single-chord accompaniment, retorting, "I'm not playing that 'clink-clink-clink jazz'!" But Freberg is adamant about the pianist's sticking to The Platters' style: "You play that 'clink-clink-clink jazz', or you won't get paid tonight!" The pianist relents—sort of.<ref name=pc5>{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19751/m1/ |title=Show 5 – Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll: The rock revolution gets underway. [Part 1&#93; : UNT Digital Library |website=Digital.library.unt.edu |date=March 9, 1969 |access-date=May 13, 2012}}</ref> The pianist even quotes the first six notes from Shearing's classic piece "[[Lullaby of Birdland]]", before returning to the song.<ref>The parody was partly parodied when Mitchel Torok recorded "All Over Again, Again" for Columbia Records in mid-March 1959, but billed it as "The Great Pretender", as a spoof on the recent [[Sun Records]] recordings of [[Johnny Cash]]. Cash had only recently been signed to Columbia. The annoying pianist on the Freberg record was replaced by an equally annoying banjo player and a showboating guitarist on the Columbia release, a song written by Torok's wife who was then billed as "R. Redd" (Ramona Redd).</ref> The song concludes with the pianist taking a liking to the arrangement only after he gets into an uncontrollably accelerating groove, despite the histrionic singer's pleas to keep tempo; the singer has to escape the studio.
 
Freberg's "Banana Boat (Day-O)" (1957) satirized [[Harry Belafonte]]'s popular recording of "[[Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)|Banana Boat Song]]". In Freberg's version, the lead singer is forced to run down the hall and close the door after him to muffle the sound of his "Day-O!" because the beatnik bongo drummer, voiced by Leeds, complains, "It's too shrill, man. It's too piercing!" When he gets to the lyric about "A beautiful buncha ripe banana/Hide the deadly black tarantula", the drummer protests, "I don't dig spiders!"<ref name=pc18>{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19768/m1/ |title=Show 18 – Blowin' in the Wind: Pop discovers folk music. [Part 1&#93; : UNT Digital Library |website=Digital.library.unt.edu |date=May 25, 1969 |access-date=September 24, 2010}}</ref> The flip is "Tele-Vee-Shun", an anti-TV song about what television has done to his family, sung in a heavy faux-[[Trinidadian]] accent and set to a [[Calypso music|Calypso]] tune.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} Freberg first recorded the song in 1952, but the 1957 version is the most well known, which lampoons [[Elvis Presley]] in one verse: "I turn on Elvis Presley and my daughter scream. / I fear she have a nervous breakdown cos of heem. / I wonder why he wiggle-waggle to de beat. / As a boy he must have had a loose bicycle seat."
 
Freberg's musical parodies were a product of his collaborations with [[Billy May]], a veteran [[big band music]]ian and [[jazz]] arranger, and his Capitol Records producer, Ken Nelson.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}. In late 1957, as TV "champagne music" master [[Lawrence Welk]]'s [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] TV show gained popularity nationwide, Freberg released "Wun'erful, Wun'erful! (Sides uh-one & uh-two)", a freewheeling mockery of the show, Welk's stilted, cornball delivery and the questionable musicianship of some of Welk's sidemen. To faithfully replicate Welk's sound, May and some of Hollywood's finest [[studio musicians]] and vocalists worked to clone Welk's live on-air style, carefully incorporating bad notes and mistimed cues.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} Billy Liebert, a first-rate accordionist, copied Welk's [[accordion]] playing. In the parody, the orchestra is overwhelmed by the malfunctioning bubble machine and the entire Aragon Ballroom eventually floats out to sea. When he met Freberg, Welk denied he had ever said "Wunnerful, Wunnerful!" and objected to the ending, futilely asking to have the orchestra rescued.<ref>Hansen, Barry and Freberg, Stan, ''Tip of the Freberg: The Stan Freberg Collection 1951–1998'' (1999), {{ISBN|0737900601}}, notes booklet, p. 16.</ref> But despite his denial of the phrase, Welk made it the title of his autobiography (Prentice Hall, 1971), and he never publicly stated his exact reasons.<ref>On the 14 October 1978 edition of "[[American Top 40]]", [[Casey Kasem]] said that "Wonderful! Wonderful!" was Welk's favorite expression.</ref> Among the regulars on Welk's show who were lampooned were "Champagne Lady" [[Alice Lon]], who became "Alice Lean", [[Larry Hooper]] became "Larry Looper", trumpeter-novelty singer Rocky Rockwell became "Stony Stonedwell" and the [[Lennon Sisters]] became the "Lemon Sisters."{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} Freberg had performed a lengthier version of the sketch on the August 11, 1957 episode of ''[[The Stan Freberg Show]]''.
 
===Political satire===
Freberg also tackled political issues of the day. On his radio show, an extended sketch paralleled the [[Cold War]] [[brinkmanship]] between the U.S. and the [[Soviet Union]] by portraying an ever-escalating [[public relations]] battle between the [[Sodom and Gomorrah|El Sodom and the Rancho Gomorrah]], two [[casino]]s in the city of Los Voraces (Spanish for "The Greedy Ones"—a thinly disguised [[Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas]]). The sketch ends with the ultimate [[tourist attraction]], the [[Hydrogen Bomb]], which turns Los Voraces into a vast, barren wasteland. Network pressure forced Freberg to remove the reference to the hydrogen bomb and had the two cities being destroyed by an earthquake instead.<ref>{{harvnb|Freberg|1988|pp=108–114}}</ref> The version of "Incident at Los Voraces", released later on Capitol Records, contains the original ending.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dawsbutler.com/Freberg1.htm |title=The Stan Freberg Show: Episodes One Through Seven |publisher=Joe Bevilacqua and Lorie Kellogg |work=The Official Website of Daws Butler |date=July 2003 |access-date=February 8, 2009 |archive-date=July 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714153409/http://www.dawsbutler.com/Freberg1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
 
Freberg had poked fun at [[McCarthyism]] in passing in "Little Blue Riding Hood" with the line, "Only the color has been changed to prevent an investigation." Later, he blatantly parodied Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] with "Point of Order" (taken from his frequent objection). The "suspect" being investigated was the black sheep from the nursery rhyme, "[[Baa, Baa, Black Sheep]]". (Butler: "I would be suspicious of anyone who tried to rhyme ''dame'' with ''lane''.") Capitol's legal department was very nervous. Freberg describes being called in for a chat with Robert Karp, the department head, and being asked whether he had ever belonged to any group that might get attention from McCarthy. He replied, "I am, and have been for a long time, a card-carrying member of... "—the executive went pale—"... the Little Orphan Annie Fan Club of America." The executive retorted, "No, this is serious; this is not funny, Freberg. Stop making jokes!"<ref>Hansen, Barry and Freberg, Stan, ''Tip of the Freberg: The Stan Freberg Collection 1951–1998'', {{ISBN|0737900601}}, notes booklet, p. 12. Freberg wrote a slightly different version of this in ''It Only Hurts When I Laugh'' (p. 85), in which he was talking with Ken Nelson, whose final reaction was much more relaxed.</ref> A watered-down version of the parody was eventually aired.
 
===Controversy===
On two occasions, Capitol refused to release Freberg's records.<ref>{{harvnb|Freberg|1988|pp=80–81}}</ref> "That's Right, Arthur" was a barbed parody of controversial 1950s radio/TV personality [[Arthur Godfrey]], who expected his stable of performers—known as "little Godfreys"—to toady to him endlessly. The dialogue included Freberg's "Godfrey" monologue, punctuated by Butler imitating Godfrey announcer [[Tony Marvin]], repeatedly interjecting, "That's right, Arthur!" between Godfrey's comments.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bobclaster.com/#freberg |title=Bob Claster's Funny Stuff |quote=Arthur Godfrey satire |access-date=February 8, 2009}}</ref> Capitol feared Godfrey might take [[lawsuit|legal action]] and sent a copy of Freberg's record to Godfrey's legal department for permission, which was denied. Capitol also rejected the equally acerbic "Most of the Town", a spoof of [[Ed Sullivan]]'s [[The Ed Sullivan Show|"The Toast of the Town"]], under similar circumstances. Both recordings were eventually issued in a [[box-set]] Freberg retrospective issued by [[Rhino Records]].
 
Freberg continued to skewer the advertising industry after the demise of his show, producing and recording "[[Green Christmas (Stan Freberg song)|Green Chri$tma$]]" in 1958, a scathing indictment of the over-commercialization of the holiday, in which Butler soberly hoped instead that we'd remember "[[Jesus|Whose]] birthday we're celebrating". The satire ended abruptly with a rendition of "Jingle Bells" punctuated by cash register sounds. The original version was somewhat longer when it was first released in 1958, but in later years Capitol did not reissue the full recording.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}} Freberg also revisited the "Dragnet" theme, with "Yulenet", also known as "Christmas Dragnet", in which the strait-laced detective convinces a character named "Grudge" that Santa Claus really exists (and Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and the Easter Bunny, but Grudge still hadn't made up his mind yet about Toledo). Butler does several voices on the record.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
===''Oregon! Oregon!''===
In 1958, the [[Oregon Centennial]] Commission, under the sponsorship of [[Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company]], hired Freberg to create a musical to celebrate Oregon's one-hundredth birthday.<ref name="npr">{{cite web
| url= https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100714479
| title= Oregon's 150th Calls for a New Act
| first= Scott| last= Simon | author-link= Scott Simon | date= February 14, 2009
| work= [[Weekend Edition Saturday]] | publisher= [[National Public Radio]] (NPR)
| access-date= February 14, 2009}}</ref><ref name="shellac">
{{cite web
| url= http://www.shellac.org/radio/oregon.html
| title= ''Oregon! Oregon! A Centennial Fable in Three Acts''
| publisher= Wolverine Antique Music Society
| access-date= February 14, 2009}}</ref>
The result was ''Oregon! Oregon! A Centennial Fable in Three Acts.'' Recorded at Capitol in Hollywood, it was released during the Oregon Centennial in 1959 as a 12″ vinyl LP album. Side one featured two versions of an introduction by Freberg (billed as "Stan Freberg, Matinee Idol"), with the second version including a few words from the president of Blitz-Weinhard Co. This was followed by the show itself, which runs for 21 minutes. Side two includes separate individual versions of each of the featured songs, including several variations on the title piece, ''Oregon! Oregon!''
 
Fifty years later, as Oregon approached its Sesquicentennial, an updated version was prepared by Freberg and the Portland band [[Pink Martini]] as part of a signature series of performances throughout the state.<ref name="npr"/><ref name="shellac"/> Pink Martini toured the state and performed four regional performances in the northern, southern and central areas of Oregon in August and September 2009. This was made possible by a grant from the Kinsman Foundation for a $40,000 launch of Pink Martini's ''Oregon! Oregon! 2009'' with Freberg.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
===1960s and later===
[[File:Stan Freberg leans on chair.jpg|thumb|Freberg in an early 60s publicity photo]]
 
In 1960, in the light of the [[payola]] scandal, Freberg made a two-sided single titled "The Old Payola Roll Blues", which tells the story of a corrupt recording studio promoter (voiced by [[Jesse White (actor)|Jesse White]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crazycollege.org/fweb.htm|title=An Interview with Stan Freberg|first=George|last=Stewart|year=1999|access-date=March 15, 2012}}</ref> who finds "Clyde Ankle" (a play on the name of singer [[Paul Anka]], with a storyline paralleling that of [[Bob Marcucci]]'s discovery of [[Fabian Forte|Fabian]]), a teenager who cannot sing. Clyde records a song called "High School OO OO", which lasted only a few seconds. (Noting the brevity, Ankle asks, "Isn't that kind of a short song?" to which the producer answers, "Yeah, it gets more plays that way.") "I Was on My Way to High School" (complete with fake audience noise from a "scream machine") is the corresponding flip side.
 
The promoter then tries to bribe a disc jockey at a jazz station to play the song on the air, which he flatly refuses, suspecting that the promoter was never in the music business in the first place. Afterward, a song in the big band style heralds the end of rock and roll and a resurgence of swing and jazz. Freberg's record was on the Hot 100 only the week of Leap Day 1960, at #99, about three and a half months after [[Tommy Facenda]]'s multi-versioned "High School U.S.A." peaked at #28. [[Alan Freed]], whose career fell prey to charges of payola, reportedly laughed at Freberg's interpretation of the scandal.
 
''[[Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume One: The Early Years|Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years]]'' (1961) combined dialogue and song in a musical theater format. The original [[album musical]], released on Capitol, parodies the history of the United States from 1492 until the end of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] in 1783. In it, Freberg parodied both large and small aspects of history. For instance, in the Colonial era, it was common to use the [[long s]], which resembles a lowercase f, in the middle of words; thus, as Ben Franklin is reading the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], he questions the passage, "Life, liberty, and the ''[[Long s|purfuit of happineff]]?!?''" Most of that particular sketch is a satire of McCarthyism. For example, Franklin remarks, "You...sign a harmless petition, and forget all about it. Ten years later, you get hauled up before a committee."
 
The album also featured the following exchange, where Freberg's [[Christopher Columbus]] is "discovered on beach here" by a [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] played by [[Marvin Miller (actor)|Marvin Miller]]. Skeptical of the Natives' diet of corn and "other organically grown vegetables", Columbus wants to open "America's first Italian restaurant" and needs to cash a check to get started:
{{blockquote|
Native: "You out of luck, today. Banks closed."<br />
Columbus: [archly, knowing what the response will be] "Oh? ''Why''?"<br />
Native: "Columbus Day!"<br />
Columbus: [pregnant pause] "We going out on that joke?"<br />
Native: "No, we do reprise of song. That help&nbsp;..."<br />
Columbus and Native together: "But not much, no!"
}}
 
In 2019, ''Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years'' was selected by the [[Library of Congress]] for preservation in the [[National Recording Registry]] for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{cite news |last=Andrews |first=Travis M. |date=March 20, 2019 |title=Jay-Z, a speech by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and 'Schoolhouse Rock!' among recordings deemed classics by Library of Congress |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jay-z-a-speech-by-sen-robert-f-kennedy-and-schoolhouse-rock-among-recordings-deemed-classics-by-library-of-congress/2019/03/19/f7eb08ea-4a58-11e9-9663-00ac73f49662_story.html?|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=March 25, 2019}}</ref>
 
''Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume Two'' was planned for release during America's [[United States Bicentennial|Bicentennial]] in 1976, but did not emerge until 1996.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cyberonic.net/~atrain/comedy/freberg.htm |title=Stan Freberg Discography |publisher=Warren Debenham, Norm Katuna |date=February 2008 |access-date=February 8, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615154511/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/e-l |archive-date=June 15, 2011}}</ref>
 
Freberg's early parodies revealed his obvious love of jazz. His portrayals of jazz musicians were usually stereotypical "[[beatnik]]" types, but jazz was always portrayed as preferable to [[popular music|pop]], [[Calypso music|calypso]], and particularly the then-new form of music, [[rock and roll]]. He whopped doo-wop in his version of "[[Sh-Boom]]" and lampooned [[Elvis Presley]] with an echo/reverb rendition of "[[Heartbreak Hotel]]".<ref name=pc7/> ''The United States of America'' includes a sketch involving the musicians in the painting ''[[Archibald MacNeal Willard#The Spirit of '76|The Spirit of '76]]''. The terribly hip fife player ("Bix", played by Freberg) and the younger drummer (played by [[Walter Tetley]]) argue with the older, impossibly square drummer ("Doodle", also voiced by Freberg) over how "[[Yankee Doodle]]" should be performed.
 
==Radio==
[[File:Stan Freberg and Gong.jpg|thumb|left|Theater for the ear: Freberg strikes a pose, 1962]]
 
The popularity of Freberg's recordings landed him his own radio program, the situation comedy ''That's Rich''. Freberg portrayed bumbling but cynical Richard E. Wilt, a resident of Hope Springs, where he worked for B.B. Hackett's Consolidated Paper Products Company. Freberg suggested the addition of dream sequences, which made it possible for him to perform his more popular Capitol Records satires before a live studio audience. The series was broadcast over the [[CBS Radio Network]] from January 8 to September 23, 1954.
 
''[[The Stan Freberg Show]]'' was a 1957 replacement for Jack Benny on CBS radio. The satirical show, produced by Pete Barnum, featured elaborate production, and included most of the team he used on his Capitol recordings, including Foray, Leeds, and Butler. Billy May arranged and conducted the music. The Jud Conlon Singers, who had also appeared on Freberg recordings, were regulars, as was singer Peggy Taylor, who later that year participated in his "Wun'erful, Wun'erful!" two-sided 45, recorded to capitalize on the response it received on the show.
 
The show failed to attract a sponsor after Freberg decided he did not want to be associated with the tobacco companies that had sponsored Benny. In lieu of actual commercials, Freberg mocked advertising by touting such products as "Puffed Grass" ("It's good for Bossie, it's good for me and you!"), "Food" ("Put some food in your tummy-tum-tum!"), and himself ("Stan Freberg—the foaming comedian! Bobba-bobba-bom-bom-bom"), a parody of the well-known [[Ajax (cleaning product)|Ajax cleanser]] commercial.
 
The lack of sponsorship was not the only problem, and Freberg also complained of radio network interference, factors which forced the cancellation of the show after a run of only 15 episodes. One sketch, "Elderly Man River", parodied the interference, as well as anticipating the [[political correctness]] movement by decades. Butler played "Mr. Tweedly", a representative of a fictional citizens' radio review board, who constantly interrupts Freberg with a loud buzzer as Freberg attempts to sing "[[Ol' Man River|Old Man River]]". Tweedly first objects to the word "old", "which some of our more ''elderly'' citizens find distasteful". As a result of Tweedly's interventions, the song's lyrics are progressively and painfully distorted, as Freberg struggles to sing the classic song in a form that Tweedly says must be acceptable "to the tiny tots" listening at home: "He don't, er, ''doesn't'' plant 'taters, er, ''potatoes'', he doesn't plant cotton, er, ''cotting'', and ''them-these-those'' that plants them are soon ''forgotting''", was a lyric of which Freberg was particularly proud. Even when the censor finds Freberg's rendition acceptable, the constant interruptions ultimately bring the song to a grinding halt just before Freberg would have had to edit the line "You gets a little drunk and you lands in jail". Freberg concedes, "Take your finger off the button, Mr. Tweedly—we know when we're licked", furnishing both the moral and the punch line of the sketch.
 
In 1966, he recorded an album, ''Freberg Underground'', in a format similar to his radio show, using the same cast and orchestra. He called it "pay radio", a parody of the term [[pay television|pay TV]], the nickname at the time for subscription-based television, "... because you have to go into the record store and buy it". The album is notable for giving Dr. [[Edward Teller]] the ''Father of the Year'' award for being "father of the [[hydrogen bomb]]" ("Use it in good health!"); for lampooning all-digit dialing ("They Took Away Our Murray Hills"); and for "The Flak-man and Reagan", a combined satire of the ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' television series featuring Robin, and the 1966 California Governor's race between [[Pat Brown|Edmund G. "Pat" Brown]] and [[Ronald Reagan]], in which the idea of Reagan in the future running for U.S. president and winning, was used in song as a final, over-the-top gag.
 
With the use of sound effects in an imaginary sequence for a promotional announcement for radio, Freberg drained Lake Michigan and filled it with hot chocolate, then cued a 700-foot mountain of whipped cream to roll into it, after which the Royal Canadian Air Force towed a 10-ton maraschino cherry overhead and dropped it on top. Some 25,000 imaginary extras cheered.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Martin |first1=Douglas |title=Stan Freberg, Madcap Adman and Satirist, Dies at 88 (Published 2015) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/arts/stan-freberg-88-madcap-adman-and-satirist-dies-at-88.html |access-date=10 February 2021 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=8 April 2015}}</ref>
 
Freberg returned to radio in several episodes of [[The Twilight Zone (radio series)|''The Twilight Zone'' radio dramas]] in the early 2000s, including "The Brain Center at Whipple's", "Four O'Clock", "The Fugitive", "Gentlemen, Be Seated", "Kick the Can", "The Masks", and "Static".
 
==Television==
Beginning in 1949, Freberg and Butler provided voices and were the [[puppeteer]]s for [[Bob Clampett]]'s [[puppet]] series, ''[[Time for Beany]]'', a triple [[Emmy Award]] winner (1950, 1951, 1953).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emmys.com/shows/time-beany#awards |title=Time for Beany|website=Emmys.com|access-date=October 24, 2019}}</ref> which was broadcast live on [[KTLA]] in Los Angeles, and distributed nationwide via kinescope by the [[Paramount Television Network]], the pioneering children's TV show garnered considerable acclaim.<ref>''Los Angeles Television'', Joel Tator, p. 93</ref> Among its fans was [[Albert Einstein]], who once reportedly interrupted a high-level conference by announcing, "You will have to excuse me, gentlemen. It is time for Beany."<ref>{{harvnb|Freberg|1988|p=75}}</ref>
 
Freberg made television guest appearances on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'' and other TV variety shows, usually with Orville the Moon Man, his puppet from outer space; he reached through the bottom of Orville's [[flying saucer]] to control the puppet's movements and turned away from the [[television camera|camera]] when he delivered Orville's lines.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} Freberg had his own [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] special, ''Stan Freberg Presents the [[Chun King]] Chow Mein Hour: Salute to the Chinese New Year'' (February 4, 1962),<ref name="Beaver Times">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=__EuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=edsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3661%2C556986 |author=Fred Danzig |agency=United Press International |title=Television in Review – Stan Freberg an Inventive Chef |page=13 |newspaper=Beaver County Times (PA) |date=1962-02-05 |access-date=2025-02-07 }}</ref> but he garnered more laughs when he was a guest on late night talk shows.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
A piece from Freberg's show was used frequently on Offshore Radio in the UK in the ’60s: "You may not find us on your TV".{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} Other on-screen television roles included ''The Monkees'' (1966)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.monkeesrule43.com/quotes_about_monks.html|title=Quotes about The Monkees|website=Monkeesrule43.com|access-date=2016-08-04}}</ref> and ''[[The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.]]'' (1967).<ref name="Pittsburgh Press">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4b4bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XU8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7420%2C486271&q=Stan+Freberg |author=Vince Leonard |title=Morning Spot Tailored for Del |page=42 |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press |date=1967-01-17 |access-date=2025-02-07 }}</ref> [[Federal Budget Review]] was a 1982<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0292677/otherworks|title=Stan Freberg|website=IMDb.com|access-date=October 28, 2017}}</ref> (copyright 1980) [[PBS]] television special lampooning the [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]]. In 1996, he portrayed the continuing character of Mr. Parkin on ''Roseanne'',{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} and both Freberg and his son had roles in the short-lived ''[[Weird Al Show]]'' in 1997.
 
===Advertising===
Freberg founded the Los Angeles-based advertising agency Freberg Limited, which produced radio and television commercials.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Sterling|first=Christopher H.|title=Biographical Dictionary of Radio|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415995498|___location=New York|pages=142}}</ref> Two of his largest clients were [[General Motors]] and [[Mellon Financial|Mellon Bank]].<ref name=":0" /> He is noted for introducing satire to the field of advertising and revolutionized the industry by influencing staid ad agencies to imitate his style into their previously dead-serious commercials. Freberg had an affinity with the radio platform, stating that it is a special medium capable of stretching the imagination more than television.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Lance|first1=Steve|title=The Little Blue Book of Advertising: 52 Small Ideas That Can Make a Big Difference|last2=Woll|first2=Jeff|year=2006|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-1101216279|language=en}}</ref>
 
Freberg's long list of successful ad campaigns includes:
* Butter-Nut Coffee: A nine-minute musical, "Omaha!"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.reelradio.com/gifts/omaha.html |title=ReelRadio Golden Gift – ButterNut Coffee Presents Omaha Starring Stan Freberg |website=Reelradio.com |access-date=May 13, 2012}}</ref> which found success outside advertising as a musical production in the city of [[Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha]]. It tells the story of a young man, "Eustace K. Butternut", who was stolen by Gypsies at an early age and, as an adult, returns to his own city, finding the residents under a spell that keeps them singing and raising their arms in the air. He frees them by saying his last name backwards ("Tunrettub"), but he immediately orders them to raise their hands back up again, taking everything the citizens have.
* [[Contadina]] [[tomato paste]]: "Who put eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can?"<ref>{{harvnb|Freberg|1988|pp=96–98}}</ref>
* [[Jeno Paulucci|Jeno's]] pizza rolls: A parody of the [[Lark (cigarette)|Lark]] cigarettes commercial that used the [[William Tell (opera)|William Tell Overture]] and a pickup truck with a sign in the bed saying "Show us your Lark pack", here ending with a confrontation between a cigarette smoker, portrayed by [[Barney Phillips]] (supposedly representing the Lark commercial's announcer) and [[Clayton Moore]] as the [[Lone Ranger]] over the use of the music. [[Jay Silverheels]] also appears as [[Tonto]], filling his possibles bag with pizza rolls, after asking "Have a Pizza Roll, kemo sabe?"<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/SE-NdrzfFOo Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070331042032/http://youtube.com/watch?v=SE-NdrzfFOo Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE-NdrzfFOo |title=YouTube – Jeno's Pizza Rolls Commercial |publisher=[[YouTube]]|date=June 17, 2006 |access-date=September 27, 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> It was regarded as one of the most brilliantly conceived and executed TV ads of the period; after one showing on ''[[The Tonight Show]]'', [[Johnny Carson]] remarked that it was the first commercial he had ever seen to receive spontaneous applause from the studio audience.
* Jeno's pizza, in a parody of [[Scope (mouthwash)|Scope]] mouthwash commercials. "You know why nobody likes your parties, Mary? You have bad pizza—''bad pizza''!"<ref name="Jenos">{{cite magazine |url= https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1968/1968-04-22-BC.pdf#page=18 |author=Jeno F. Paulucci |title=Monday Memo |page=18 |magazine=Broadcasting Magazine |date=1968-04-22 |access-date=2025-02-07 }}</ref>
* Sunsweet pitted [[prune (fruit)|prunes]]: Depicted as the "food of the future" in a [[futuristic]] setting, until science fiction icon [[Ray Bradbury]], a friend of Freberg's (shown on a wall-to-wall television screen reminiscent of ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'') butts in: "I never mentioned prunes in any of my stories." "You didn't?" "No, never. I'm sorry to be so candid." "No, they're not candied" ([[rim shot]]).<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/A5NxG_rr5aU Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20080908033125/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5NxG_rr5aU Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5NxG_rr5aU |title=YouTube – Ray Bradbury Prunes Commercial |publisher=[[YouTube]]|date=December 13, 2007 |access-date=September 27, 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Bradbury reportedly refused to consider doing a commercial until Freberg told him, "I'm calling it ''Brave New Prune''", prompting Bradbury to ask, "When do we start?" Prune sales increased 400 percent the year following the campaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://foxpudding.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/stan-freberg/|title=Stan Freberg|website=Foxpudding.wordpress.com|date=October 18, 2012|access-date=October 3, 2014}}</ref>
* Another Sunsweet commercial features [[Ronald Long]] as a picky eater: "They're still rather badly wrinkled, you know", and ends with the famous line, "Today, the pits; tomorrow, the wrinkles. Sunsweet marches on!"<ref name="Ventura">{{cite news |url=https://archive.vcstar.com/news/beverly-kelley-going-bananas-over-ports-community-festival-ep-292371186-351619171.html/ |author=Beverly Kelley |title=Going bananas over port's community festival |page=7B |newspaper=Ventura County Star (CA) |date=2013-09-11 |access-date=2025-02-07 }}</ref>
* [[Heinz]] Great American Soups: [[Ann Miller]] is a housewife who turns her kitchen into a gigantic production number, singing such lyrics as "Let's face the chicken gumbo and dance!" After watching his wife's flashy tap dancing, her husband, played by veteran character actor [[Dave Willock]], asks, "Why do you always have to make such a big production out of everything?" At the time (1970), this was the most expensive commercial ever made.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oS99Z2-qe3sC&q=%22great+american+soup%22+%22most+expensive%22&pg=PA76 |title=H.J. Heinz Company |author1=Debbie Foster |author2=Jack Kennedy |year=2006 |page=67 |publisher=Arcadia |isbn=978-0738545684 |access-date=2015-04-07}}</ref>
* [[Jacobsen Mowers]]: Sheep slowly munch on a front lawn. On camera reporter/announcer (voice of [[William Woodson]]): "Jacobsen mowers. Faster... than sheep!"
* ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'': A sardonic, bespectacled high schooler (played by Freberg's son [[Donavan Freberg|Donavan]]) announces he has a major paper due soon. Freberg as the offscreen narrator advises him (and the audience) to try the encyclopedia, while the student chides him for being too pushy ("they can see the number on the bottom of the screen").<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/lMpgcz6s-eI Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20141205022221/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMpgcz6s-eI Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMpgcz6s-eI|title="Encyclopædia Britannica" Commercial 1988|date=March 6, 2013 |access-date=August 28, 2021|publisher=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* ''[[Chun King]] Chinese Food'': Magazine ad, featuring a lineup of nine Chinese men and one white man, all with stethoscopes around their necks and dressed in white doctors' tunics, with the caption, "Nine out of ten doctors recommend Chun King Chow Mein!"<ref name="Freberg 1988 183">{{harvnb|Freberg|1988|p=183}}</ref>
* [[Kaiser Aluminum]] produced foil to rival [[Reynolds Wrap]]. Freberg created a sales campaign based on Kaiser's difficulties in getting grocers to stock their product, featuring the "Kaiser Foil Salesman". Despite the company's initial hesitation, the campaign produced a huge increase in distribution and sales.<ref>{{harvnb|Freberg|1988|pp=154–173}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/kaiser-foil-grabbers/|title=Foiled Again! More Kaiser Aluminum Spots by Stan Freberg|website=Cartoonresearch.com|access-date=October 3, 2014}}</ref>
* Prince Spaghetti: In 1985, Freberg produced a commercial announcing "Prince in Concert!" But it turned out to be Prince Spaghetti Sauce "in concert with" Prince Spaghetti. The rock star was not amused and sent a letter demanding they cease airing the commercial. Company President Joseph Pellegrino wrote back saying, in effect, they had the name first. The singer quietly let it go. Freberg told ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' that though he'd never been sued, this was the first time he'd received an angry letter.
 
Freberg was also very popular in Australia, visiting there several times in the 1950s as a performer in a number of "Big Show" concerts. In 1959 he wrote and voiced an animated TV commercial in Sydney for Sunshine Powdered Milk, which won a TV "Logie" as one of the most popular TV commercials of the year in an annual awards ceremony.
 
Today, these advertisements are considered classics by many critics.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} Though [[Bob & Ray]] had pioneered intentionally comic advertisements (stemming from a hugely successful campaign for Piels beer), Stan Freberg is usually credited as being the first person to introduce humor into television advertising with memorable campaigns. He felt a truly funny commercial would cause consumers to request a product, as was the case with his elaborate ad campaign that prompted stores to stock Salada tea.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} [[Jeno Paulucci]], then the owner of Chun King, had to pay off a bet over the success of Freberg's first commercial by pulling Freberg in a [[Pulled rickshaw|rickshaw]] on Hollywood's La Cienega Boulevard.<ref name="Freberg 1988 183"/> Freberg won 21 [[Clio award]]s for his commercials.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://emmys.tv/media/releases/2006/rel_laarea_gov.php |title=2006 Los Angeles Area Governors Award Honor to Television Pioneer Stan Freberg |date=June 22, 2006 |publisher=Academy of Television Arts & Sciences |access-date=February 8, 2009}}</ref> Many of those spots were included in the Freberg four-CD [[box set]] ''Tip of the Freberg''.
 
==Later work==
[[File:41st Annual Annie Awards, Hunter Freberg, Stan Freberg, 2014.jpg|thumb|Freberg with his second wife at the [[41st Annie Awards|Annual Annie Awards]], 2014]]
Following his success in comedy records and television, Freberg was often invited to appear as a featured guest at various events, such as his skit at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, again playing straight man to Orville in his [[UFO]]. He innocently asks why there is a hole in the end of the spacecraft, only to be told, "That's where the swamp gas comes out."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrSRU3uXPmw The Science Fiction Film Awards], The Museum of Classic Chicago Television, 1978.</ref>
 
In his autobiography, ''It Only Hurts When I Laugh'', Freberg recounts much of his life and early career, including his encounters with such show business legends as [[Milton Berle]], [[Frank Sinatra]] and [[Ed Sullivan]], and the struggles he endured to get his material on the air.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
He had brief sketches on [[KNX (AM)]] radio in the mid-1990s, beginning each with "Freberg here!"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-26-ca-1055-story.html|title=Radio Review : Satirist Stan Freberg Returns|author=Charles Champlin|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=1990-02-26|access-date=2020-07-01}}</ref> In one sketch, Freberg mentioned that the band played "Inhale to the Chief" at [[Bill Clinton]]'s inauguration.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
He guest starred multiple times on ''[[The Garfield Show]]'' where he provided the voice of Dr. Whipple, and as the studio chairman on an episode of ''[[Taz-Mania]]''.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}}
 
Freberg was inducted into the [[National Radio Hall of Fame]] in 1995. From 1995 until October 6, 2006, Freberg hosted ''[[When Radio Was]]'', a [[radio syndication|syndicated]] anthology of vintage radio shows.<ref name="deathcause">{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/stan-freberg-comedian-satirist-dies-dead-1201467899/|title=Comedian and Voice Actor Stan Freberg Dies at 88|date=April 7, 2015|website=Variety.com|access-date=April 7, 2015}}</ref> The release of the 1996 Rhino CD ''The United States of America Volume 1 (the Early Years)'' and ''Volume 2 (the Middle Years)'' suggested a possible third volume (which never happened). This set includes some parts written but cut because they would not fit on a record album.
 
He appeared on [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s ''[[The Weird Al Show]]'', playing both the J.B. Toppersmith character and the voice of the puppet Papa Boolie. Yankovic has acknowledged Freberg as one of his greatest influences.<ref>{{cite web|last=Yankovic |first=Al |url=https://variety.com/2014/scene/spotlight/al-yankovic-stan-freberg-1201340095/ |title='Weird Al' Yankovic Salutes His Hero, Stan Freberg |website=Variety.com |date=October 30, 2014 |access-date=February 22, 2017}}</ref> Freberg is among the commentators in the special features on the multiple-volume DVD sets of the ''[[Looney Tunes Golden Collection]]'' and narrates the documentary "Irreverent Imagination" on Volume 1.
 
Freberg was the announcer for the boat race in the film adaptation of ''[[Stuart Little (film)|Stuart Little]]'', and in 2008 he guest starred as [[Sherlock Holmes]] in two episodes of ''[[The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.doctorfloyd.com/2008/10/12/stan-freberg-to-appear-on-dr-floyd/ |title=The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd |publisher=The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd |date=October 12, 2008 |quote=Stan Freberg To Star on the Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd Podcast |access-date=February 8, 2009}}</ref> From 2008 onwards, Freberg voiced numerous characters, including Doctor Whipple and Fluffykins, on ''[[The Garfield Show]]''. He recorded his last voice-over role as the Mole for the episode "Rodent Rebellion" in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsfromme.com/2016/10/22/garfield-news/|title=Garfield News – News From ME|date=October 22, 2016|website=Newsfromme.com|access-date=October 28, 2017}}</ref>
 
==Death==
Freberg died on April 7, 2015, aged 88, at [[UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-stan-freberg-20150407-story.html|title=Stan Freberg, master of comedy parodies and commercials, dies at 88|author=Dennis McLellan|work=Los Angeles Times|date=2015-04-07|accessdate=2022-03-16}}</ref> in [[Santa Monica, California]] from [[pneumonia]].<ref name="deathcause"/><ref name="thr150407">{{cite news |first=Duane |last=Byrge |newspaper=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |title=Stan Freberg, Acclaimed Satirist, Dies at 88 |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/stan-freberg-dead-acclaimed-satirist-787007 |date=April 7, 2015 |access-date=April 7, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Martin|first1=Douglas|title=Stan Freberg, Madcap Adman and Satirist, Dies at 88|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/arts/stan-freberg-88-madcap-adman-and-satirist-dies-at-88.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region|access-date=April 8, 2015|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 7, 2015}} He was the last surviving cast member of ''[[Lady and the Tramp]]'' (1955).</ref>
 
==In popular culture==
{{in popular culture|date=December 2018}}
'''Films'''
* In 1961's ''[[The Parent Trap (1961 film)|The Parent Trap]],'' the characters during the animated opening title sequence refer to each other as John and Marsha.<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news|first=Stacey|last=Anderson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/apr/08/stan-freberg-funny-commercial-parodies |title=Stan Freberg: five top parodies from the master of the funny commercial &#124; Culture |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=April 8, 2015 |access-date=2015-08-17}}</ref>
* The 1968 film ''The Acid Eaters'' has a John and Marsha exchange. Marsha is played by Dianne Curtis.
 
'''Recordings'''
* In 2007, comedian the great Luke Ski recorded a 10-minute homage called ''MC Freberg'', a parody illustrating what a Freberg-type satire of [[rap music]] would have sounded like.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lyricsmania.com/mc_freberg_lyrics_great_luke_ski_the.html |title=The great Luke Ski – MC Freberg Lyrics |website=Lyricsmania.com |access-date=2015-08-17}}</ref> Originally recorded for ''The FuMP'', the track also appears on Ski's album ''BACONspiracy''.
 
'''Television'''
* On the fourth season premiere of the TV series ''[[Mad Men]]'', [[Peggy Olson]] ([[Elisabeth Moss]]) and Joey Baird ([[Matt Long]]) act out the "John and Marsha" comedy soap opera parody and repeatedly call each other John and Marsha.<ref>{{cite news|journal=The Boston Globe|title=Mad about 'John & Marsha'|first=Don|last=Aucoin|date= July 31, 2010|url=http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2010/07/31/mad_about_john__marsha/}}</ref>
* Warner Brothers cartoons (in which Freberg appeared, uncredited, as a voice artist) often had cameo appearances by couples named John and Marsha. In one case, the woman was an alien, making the couple John and Martian.
* [[Benny Hill]] did a video version of Freberg's "John and Marsha" on his [[The Benny Hill Show|November 24, 1971 special]], in the form of an [[art film]] parody titled "The Lovers", with Benny as John, [[Jenny Lee-Wright]] as Marsha, and [[Henry McGee]] as a third character, George; the distinguishing visual factor being that the actors were photographed from the neck down.<ref name=Guardian/>
* "John and Marsha" also is parodied in the ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' episode "Yarnbenders".
 
==Selected filmography==
 
=== Film ===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year
!Title
!Role
!Notes
|-
|1951
|''[[Callaway Went Thataway]]''
|Marvin
|
|-
|1953
|''[[Geraldine (1953 film)|Geraldine]]''
|Billy Weber
|
|-
|1955
|''[[Lady and the Tramp]]''
|Beaver (voice)
|
|-
|1958
|''[[Tom Thumb (film)|Tom Thumb]]''
|Yawning Man (voice)
|
|-
|1963
|''[[It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]''
|Deputy Sheriff
|
|-
|1980
|''[[I Go Pogo (film)|I Go Pogo]]''
|Albert the Alligator (voice)
|
|-
|1999
|''[[Stuart Little (film)|Stuart Little]]''
|Boat Race Announcer (voice)
|<ref name="btva">{{cite web |title=Stan Freberg (visual voices guide) |url=http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Stan-Freberg/ |access-date=September 15, 2024 |publisher=Behind The Voice Actors}} A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.</ref>
|-
|2000
|''[[Tweety's High-Flying Adventure]]''
|Pete Puma (voice)
|Direct-to-video
|-
|2003
|''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]''
|Junior Bear (voice)
|<ref name="btva" />
|-
|2013
|''[[I Know That Voice]]''
|Himself
|Documentary
|}
 
=== Television ===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year
!Title
!Role
!Notes
|-
|1949–1953
|''[[Time for Beany]]''
|Cecil, Dishonest John (voice)
|Main role (39 episodes)
|-
|1990–1991
|''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''
|Pete Puma, Junior Bear (voice)
|2 episodes<ref name="btva" />
|-
|1995–1996
|''[[Freakazoid!]]''
|Mo-Ron (voice)
|2 episodes<ref name="btva" />
|-
|1997
|''[[The Weird Al Show]]''
|Papa Boolie (voice)
|5 episodes<ref name="btva" />
|-
|1998
|''[[The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries]]''
|Pete Puma (voice)
|Episode: "Good Bird Hunting"<ref name="btva" />
|-
|2003
|''[[Duck Dodgers (TV series)|Duck Dodgers]]''
|Gopher King (voice)
|Episode: "K-9 Kaddy"<ref name="btva" />
|}
 
==Discography==
===Singles===
{| class="wikitable"
!rowspan="2"|Year
!rowspan="2"|Titles (A-side, B-side)<br /><small>Both sides from same album except where indicated</small>
!colspan="2"|Chart positions
!rowspan="2"|Album
|-
!width="40"|<small>[[Billboard Hot 100|US]]</small>
!width="40"|<small>[[UK Singles Chart|UK]]</small>
|-
|rowspan="3"|1951
| [[John and Marsha]]<br /><small>b/w "Ragtime Dan" (Non-album track)</small>
| align="center"| 21
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''A Child's Garden Of Freberg''
|-
| "[[I've Got You Under My Skin]]" /
| align="center"| 11
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|Non-album track
|-
| "That's My Boy"
| align="center"| 30
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''A Child's Garden Of Freberg''
|-
|rowspan="3"|1952
| "Maggie"<br /><small>b/w "Tele Vee Shun" (from ''Stan Freberg With The Original Cast'')</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|Non-album track
|-
| "Try"<br /><small>b/w "Pass The Udder Udder" (Non-album track)</small>
| align="center"| 15
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''A Child's Garden Of Freberg''
|-
| "[[The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise]]"<br /><small>b/w "The Boogie Woogie Banjo Man From Birmingham"</small>
| align="center"| 24
| align="center"| –
| align="left" rowspan="2"|Non-album tracks
|-
|rowspan="4"|1953
| "Dinky Pinky" – Part 1<br /><small>b/w Part 2</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
|-
| "[[St. George and the Dragonet]]" /
| align="center"| 1
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''A Child's Garden Of Freberg''
|-
| "Little Blue Riding Hood"
| align="center"| 9
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''Stan Freberg With The Original Cast''
|-
| "Christmas Dragnet" – Parts 1 & 2
| align="center"| 13
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|Non-album tracks
|-
|rowspan="4"|1954
| "[[C'est Si Bon]]"<br /><small>b/w "A Dear John and Marsha Letter" (Non-album track)</small>
| align="center"| 13
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''A Child's Garden Of Freberg''
|-
| "Person to Pearson"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://img.discogs.com/RlqGsfVjzKTFIqq44hOrWUsQ9g8=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-6361696-1417359894-5113.jpeg.jpg |title=Person to Pearson disc label |access-date=2019-04-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161010173305/https://img.discogs.com/RlqGsfVjzKTFIqq44hOrWUsQ9g8=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-6361696-1417359894-5113.jpeg.jpg |archive-date=October 10, 2016 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><br /><small>b/w "Point Of Order"</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|Non-album tracks
|-
| "[[Sh-Boom]]"<br /><small>b/w "Widescreen Mama Blues"</small>
| align="center"| 14
| align="center"| 15
| align="left"|''A Child's Garden Of Freberg''
|-
| "Yulenet" – Part 1<br /><small>b/w Part 2</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
| align="left" rowspan="2"|Non-album tracks
|-
|rowspan="3"|1955
| "The Honeyearthers"<br /><small>b/w "The Lone Psychiatrist"</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
|-
| "[[The Yellow Rose of Texas (song)|The Yellow Rose of Texas]]"<br /><small>b/w "Rock Around Stephen Foster"</small>
| align="center"| 16
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''A Child's Garden Of Freberg''
|-
| "[[Nuttin' For Christmas]]"<br /><small>b/w "[[A Visit from St. Nicholas|The Night Before Christmas]]"</small>
| align="center"| 53
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|Non-album tracks
|-
|rowspan="3"|1956
| "[[The Great Pretender]]"<br /><small>b/w "The Quest For Bridey Hammerschlaugen" (from ''The Best Of Stan Freberg'')</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
| align="left" rowspan="3"|''A Child's Garden Of Freberg''
|-
| "[[Heartbreak Hotel]]" /
| align="center"| 79
| align="center"| –
|-
| "[[Rock Island Line]]"
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| 24
|-
|rowspan="2"|1957
| "[[Banana Boat (Day-O)]]"<br /><small>b/w "Tele-Vee-Shun"</small>
| align="center"| 25
| align="center"| –
| align="left" rowspan="2"|''Stan Freberg With The Original Cast''
|-
| "[[Lawrence Welk|Wun'erful, Wun'erful]]"<small> (Side uh-one and side uh-two)</small>
| align="center"| 32
| align="center"| –
|-
|rowspan="2"|1958
| "[[Gary, Indiana (song)|Gary, Indiana]]"<br /><small>b/w "Ya Got Trouble" (from ''Stan Freberg With The Original Cast'')</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|Non-album track
|-
| "[[Green Christmas (Stan Freberg song)|Green Chri$tma$]]"<br /><small>b/w "The Meaning Of Christmas" (Non-album track)</small>
| align="center"| 44
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''Stan Freberg With The Original Cast''
|-
|1959
| "The Old Payola Roll Blues"<small> (Like The Beginning and End)</small>
| align="center"| 99
| align="center"| 40
| align="left" rowspan="2"|Non-album tracks
|-
|1960
| "Comments For Our Time" – Part 1<br /><small>b/w Part 2</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
|-
|1961
| "Pilgrim's Progress"<br /><small>b/w "Yankee Doodle Go Home"</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''Stan Freberg Presents The United States Of America Vol. 1: The Early Years''
|-
|1966
| "The Flackman and Reagan" – Part 1<br /><small>b/w Part 2</small>
| align="center"| –
| align="center"| –
| align="left"|''Freberg Underground! Show No. 1''
|-
|align="center" colspan="5" style="font-size: 8pt"| "-" denotes release did not chart.
|}
 
==References==
{{Reflist}}
 
==Bibliography==
* {{cite book
| title = It Only Hurts When I Laugh
| last = Freberg
| first = Stan
| year = 1988
| publisher = Times Books
| isbn = 0812912977
| url = https://archive.org/details/itonlyhurtswheni0000freb
}}
 
==External links==
{{Toomanylinks|date=January 2024}}
{{Commons}}
* {{IMDb name|292677|Stan Freberg}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615154511/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/e-l Stan Freberg Discography]
* {{Discogs artist|Stan Freberg}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070322152136/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,825215,00.html "Stan the Man"] in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' (July 29, 1957)
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/markthomaspresents/pip/2f6i0/ ''Mark Thomas Presents: Stan Freberg''] BBC Radio 4 (2005)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090215231809/http://cosmik.com/aa-october99/stan_freberg.html Cosmik Debris interview]
* [http://www.shellac.org/radio/oregon.html ''Oregon! Oregon!''] (1959)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615154511/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/e-l "Little Go Beep"]
 
===Audio===
* [https://archive.org/details/stan_freberg_show The Stan Freberg Show] Entire series on the [[Internet Archive]]
* [[The Pop Chronicles]] interviewed Freberg on [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615154511/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/e-l April 18, 1968]; he appears in shows [{{Pop Chronicles url|1}} 1, 2, 5, 7], [{{Pop Chronicles url|18}} 18], and [{{Pop Chronicles url|49}} 49].
* [http://www.bobclaster.com/radioshows/Freberg%201.mp3 Bob Claster's career-spanning 1989 interview with Stan Freberg (featuring many excerpts) pt.1] [http://www.bobclaster.com/radioshows/Freberg%202.mp3 pt.2] [http://www.bobclaster.com/radioshows/Freberg%203.mp3 pt.3] [http://www.bobclaster.com/radioshows/Freberg%204.mp3 pt.4] [http://www.bobclaster.com/radioshows/Freberg%205.mp3 pt.5]
* [http://www.bobclaster.com/radioshows/CBS%20Radio%20Workshop%20-%20Freberg.mp3 August 31, 1956 episode of CBS Radio Workshop ''Colloquy #3: An Analysis of Satire'' featuring Stan Freberg]
* [http://www.shellac.org/radio/mp3/oror00.mp3 ''Oregon! Oregon!'' Intro] [http://www.shellac.org/radio/mp3/oror01a.mp3 Overture] [http://www.shellac.org/radio/mp3/oror01b.mp3 Act I] [http://www.shellac.org/radio/mp3/oror01c.mp3 Interlude] [http://www.shellac.org/radio/mp3/oror01d.mp3 Act II] [http://www.shellac.org/radio/mp3/oror01e.mp3 Act III]
* [https://archive.org/details/BensWackyRadio-August22011stanFrebergTribute Stan Freberg birthday episode of Ben's Wacky Radio] on [[Internet Archive]] Hour two features Stan Freburg audio clips.
 
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