Stan Freberg Tip Of The Freberg: The Stan Freberg Collection.

1951-1998 (4 CDs)
(RHINO)

When The Beatles hit America, Paul McCartney told reporters that one of the group's main comic influences was Stan Freberg's "St. George and the Dragonet" Freberg's 1953 parody ("The legend you are ahout to hear is true. Only the needle should be changed to protect the record...") was an international hit, even though Dragnet was on the air only in America. When the show eventually debuted abroad, most foreigners amazingly assumed Jack Webb had built an entire TV series out of Freherg*s record. Rhino celebrates Frcberg's five decades in records, radio and TV with a comprehensive four-disc set, featuring extensive liner notes (contributed by, among others. Barret "Dr. Demento" Hanson) and a CD's worth of previously unissued material,

The collection includes Freberg's savvy spoofs of such 1950s pop hits aw"Sh-Boom" and "Heartbreak Hotel," as well as bite from his '50s CBS radio show and his two fine Stan Freberg Presen ts the United States of America albums. Freberg has found American history as a starting point to skewer contemporary mores, such as his Pilgrim plea for racial tolerance, "l^ke an Indian to Lunch"from 1961. In the tradition of Aristophanes, Gilbert and Sullivan and The fiimpmns, Frvberg's satire is rooted in basic values. In his 1960 holiday single "Green Chri$tma$," Freberg, the son of a Baptist minister, spoofed corporate Yuletide commercialization. Fraberg also had the courage to create anti-Motlarthyism comic bits during the '50s and produce anti-Vietnam PSAs in the early'70s. In 1958 Freberg began a lucrative second career as an award-winning producer of TV commercials. Some saw it as selling out, while others saw it. as subverting Madison Avenue from within, injecting humor into an uptight industry. There's a video assortment of his bewtknown ads, including tiis Sunsweet prune commercials phis one ofTV's all-time surreal imagesAnn Miller tnp-danci ng atop a monolith soup c&n. Still producing and performing comedy at age 73, Freberg worked with Simpsons regulars Dan Oastellaneta and Harry Shearer on some of the more recent bits. While fans might quibble at some of the set's omissions, Tip Of The Frcbt'.rg is a funny and fitting salute to a pioneer of contemporary American

Comedy Stan Freberg presents the United States of America

Vol. 2: The Middle Years Rhino) lalso available with Vol. 1}

Word crackled over the internet this spring; Stan Freberg was back in the studio, recording his first comedy album in 35 years, a sequel to his landmark History of the United States of America tP Comedy fans eagerty awaited a batch of new Freberg humor. The bad news is that the majority of the bits on Vol. 2: The Middle Years were actually written in 1964 for a never-produced stage version of Freberg's 1961 album. So while Freberg was indeed recording earlier this year, he was essentially pulling material out of the trunk. And much of the sketches,which in the early '60s must have seemed incredi-

bly daring rewriting the ' National Anthem and Ge Address, presenting Lincoln as a milquetoast of a husband now seems pretty quaint in an era of Howard Stern and Letterman monologues. That caveat aside, Vol. 2 is nonetheless highly enjoyable and a worthy follow-up to its predecessor (which teachers have long used to introduce students ro Columbus and Betsy Ross predating Schoolhouse /?ocW. As the first album concluded with the Revolutionary War, this one satirizes U.S. history through WORLD WAR I. Once again Freberg has assembled a topnotch cast, from veterans of the first LP such as June "Rocky the Flying Squirrel" Foray and Jesse White to David Ogcfen Stiers (Winchester on M'A'S'H). John Goodman (with a surprisingly strong singing voice) and Harry Shearer (who's doing great political satire on his own with his public radio series Le ShovA. One of the themes running through the album is that . America is a consumer product, appropriate given Freberg's long advertising career. Vol. 2 opens with a 1780s ad agency producing a primitive commercial for the young America (" It's good luck even with 13 stars!"). The album's high point might well be Freberg's Union army ad man asking Barbara Frietchie (voiced by Tyne Daly) to stick her head out a certain window: "We commissioned a coffeehouse poet in Greenwich Village, John Greenleaf Whittier, to write a little poem commemorating your brave act, which we'll feed to the press later..." The best news of all is Freberg's assurance that he'll put out a third volume real soon much sooner than another 35 years. Here's hoping that he not only puts together another strong ensemble, but that he also writes a totally new set of sketches. Today's culture wars are unbearably humorless; we desperately need the Stan Ffebergs of the world to offer some comedic perspective to American history. Andrew Milner