[.ca] Collection (1951-1998)

From Amazon.com:
Tip of the Freberg presents four CDs and one VHS-format videotape of classic comedy from the legendary master who paved the way for Saturday Night Live and National Lampoon. This is the definitive collection of the sarcastic but sophisticated Freberg magic, including the best of his famous routines and satirical songs plus unreleased goodies new and old. The set also contains the first-ever CD of his hilarious radio ads and the video has award-winning TV commercials that he wrote and directed. The snappy package comes complete with an actual X-ray of Freberg's skull and it is lovingly annotated with details of who played the music (exotica big kahuna Les Baxter wrote some of the band arrangements), what Freberg's writing and working methods were, and who supplied the characters' voices. (Not surprisingly Freberg did many of the vocal parts himself--he's a capable singer and actor.) The older material remains funny stuff, and the liner notes provide the depth of historical context. This is not a box set that will be played once and then put on the shelf. Everything on Tip of the Freberg is good for repeat plays and hours of laughs in the years ahead. --John Sulak

WARNING: Satire is all in fun, no offense meant...:
this box set is wun'erful, wun'erful! i just had to say that, forgive me!! anyway, i love this box set and the video of his TV commercials are hilarious. i love the one about the Turkey and Giblets with James Mason and this southern talking woman! i also laugh at the Gene Rayburn lookalike on the frozen pizza commercial where he slaps this woman with the pizza box. the hilarity comes from the guy's deadpan delivery. the video also includes two commercials with his son, Donavan "Encyclopedia Brittanica" Freberg. the music/comedy skits are also hilarious but on the Volume 3 CD containing a majority of his "Presents the United States of America" routines, from 1961 and from the sequel in 1996, Stan's voice comes in crystal clear but his co-stars voices sound miles away. i don't know if it was intentionally recorded that way or not...but that's the way the routines sound on the Volume Three CD. the producer or engineer might've forgot to turn on his co-star's mikes? don't let that distract you from getting this career spanning box set, though. well, i played volume three on my brother's CD player and it sounded terrific and so i realized that my speaker had a short in it and i went out and bought me a new CD player and Volume Three is alright! the booklet is fabulous and every aspect of Stan's career is showcased except his cartoon work for Warner Brothers...one thinks Rhino should've added an audio version of a classic cartoon that Stan and Mel Blanc voiced? maybe someone else will examine Stan's cartoon work? Tip of the Freberg is stunning and mind blowing with all the facts and trivia. on the video, Stan performs "The Conspirasky Theory", and it's delightful to see/hear Stan continue to satirize politics.

Omaha! finally available:
This set is worth the price of admission for Disc 3 alone: "Omaha!" is the gem of the entire set, but "Christmas Dragnet" is up there too. The skits from Freberg's radio show tend to capture the breadth of his imagination, as the inclusion especially the entire 25-minute "Incident at Los Veroces", but the skits "Grey Flannel Hatful of Teenage Werewolves" and "Face the Funnies" (on the radio show boxed sets) are even funnier.

Omaha! finally available:
This set is worth the price of admission for Disc 3 alone: "Omaha!" is the gem of the entire set, but "Christmas Dragnet" is up there too. The skits from Freberg's radio show tend to capture the breadth of his imagination, as the inclusion especially the entire 25-minute "Incident at Los Veroces", but the skits "Grey Flannel Hatful of Teenage Werewolves" and "Face the Funnies" (on the radio show boxed sets) are even funnier.

Great..but where's?:
After searching for years, i've finally found him again. This CD is fantastic. After only having the "Dragnet" songs on old 78's before,it's great to here the clarity on CD. My only regret is that two classics that i remember are not here. "Rock around with Stephen Foster" and "Widescreen Mama". Does anyone know if they are on anything else?

Classic Song Parodies Just Tip of Classic Freberg:
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.

• John & Marsha - Cliffie Stone
• I've Got You Under My Skin - Les Baxter, Chorus, Orchestra
• That's My Boy - Les Baxter, Orchestra
• Try - Billy May, Orchestra
• World Is Waiting for the Sunrise - George Bruns, , Orchestra
• C'Est Si Bon - George Bruns,
• Dear John & Marsha Letter - George Bruns,
• Sh-Boom - Billy May, Toads, Orchestra
• Yellow Rose of Texas - Billy May
• Great Pretender - Billy May, Toads, Orchestra
• Heartbreak Hotel - Billy Liebert, Orchestra
• Rock Island Line - Stan Freberg, Billy Liebert, Orchestra
• Banana Boat Song (Day-O) - Stan Freberg
• Tele-Vee-Shun - Billy May, , Orchestra
• Wun'erful, Wun'erful \oSide Uh-One & Side Uh-Two\c - Lemon Sisters, Billy May, Billy May Orchestra, Chuck Schrouder
• Ya Got Trouble - Stan Freberg, , Billy May, Billy May Orchestra
• Old Payola Roll Blues, Pts. 1-2 - Stan Freberg, Jesse White
• Worst of the Town \oThe Most of the Town\c - Daws Butler, Stan Freberg
• That's Right, Arthur - Daws Butler, , Stan Freberg
• St. George and the Dragonet - Daws Butler, June Foray, Walter Schumann, Orchestra
• Little Blue Riding Hood - Daws Butler, June Foray, Walter Schumann, Orchestra
• Christmas Dragnet (Yulenet), Pts. 1-2 - Daws Butler, Walter Schumann, Orchestra
• Point of Order (Baa, Baa Black Sheep) - Daws Butler, Stan Freberg
• Person to Pearson - Daws Butler, Stan Freberg
• Honey-Earthers - Daws Butler, Stan Freberg, Billy May, Billy May Orchestra
• Lone Psychiatrist - Daws Butler, Stan Freberg, Billy May, Billy May Orchestra
• Elderly Man River - Daws Butler, Stan Freberg
• Freberg in Advertisingland - Daws Butler, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Peter Leeds
• Bang Gunleigh, U.S. Marshall Field - Daws Butler, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Peter Leeds, Peggy Taylor
• Incident at Los Voraces - Daws Butler, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Peter Leeds, Marvin Miller
• Green Chri$Tma$ - Jud Conlon Chorale, Billy May, Marvin Miller, Wil Wright
• Overture - Stan Freberg
• Columbus Discovers America \oIt's a Round, Round World\c - Stan Freberg
• Pilgrim's Progress (Take an Indian to Lunch) - Stan Freberg
• Thanksgiving Story (Under the Double Turkey) - Stan Freberg
• Declaration of Independence (A Man Can't Be Too Careful What He ...) - Stan Freberg
• Betsy Ross and the Flag (Everybody Wants to Be an Art Director) - Stan Freberg
• Stephen Foster Beloved Songwriter - Stan Freberg
• Barbara Frietchie Martyr of the Year - Stan Freberg
• Shoot If You Must - Jimmy Bryant Singers, Tyne Daly
• Alexander Graham Bell and the First Phone Call - Stan Freberg
• Thomas Edison Invents the Light Bulb! The Phonograph!, Pt. 1 - Stan Freberg
• Perseverance
• Thomas Edison Invents the Light Bulb! The Phonograph!, Pt. 2 - Stan Freberg
• Planned Obsolescence - Stan Freberg, , Harry Shearer
• Henry Ford Invents Detroit - Stan Freberg
• Perseverance (Reprise) - Stan Freberg
• Omaha!, Pts. 1-2 - Stan Freberg
• Folk Songs for Our Time (Oh Dat Freeway System) - Stan Freberg
• Folk Songs for Our Time (Which Is the Girl? Which Is the Boy?) - Stan Freberg
• Anybody Here Remember Radio - June Foray, Donna Freberg, Stan Freberg
• Puffed Grass from "Bang Gunleigh, U.S. Marshall Field" - Stan Freberg
• Who Listens to Radio? - Quincy Jones, Sarah Vaughan
• Empire State Building/Who Puts Eight Great Tomatoes in That Little Big - Stan Freberg
• Truth in Advertising - Stan Freberg
• Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Dog - Stan Freberg
• Streching the Imagination - Stan Freberg, Paul Frees
• Milk and I - Stan Freberg
• Gilbert & Sullivan Spoof - Stan Freberg
• Beat Poet - Stan Freberg
• James Bond Spoof - Stan Freberg
• Goldnoodle - Stan Freberg
• Can I Have a Bite of Your Pencil? - Stan Freberg
• Floor Show Now Going On - Stan Freberg
• 1966 Chun King - Stan Freberg
• Winding the War Down/McGovern-Hatfield Amendment to End the War - Lynn Murray
• Vietnamatic 3-McGovern-Hatfield Amendment to End the War - Lynn Murray
• Moby Dick - Stan Freberg
• Painting on the Radio - Stan Freberg
• Today the Pits, Tomorrow the Wrinkles! \oBedtime Story\c - Ralph Carmichael Orchestra, , Chorus
• Funnier Than Cleopatra/It's a Mad Mad World - Stan Freberg
• Drink Bed \oFreedle Family Singers\c - Stan Freberg
• Supercharger - Stan Freberg
• What's That Bottled Revelation? - Stan Freberg
• Clark Smathers Faces Life - June Foray, Stan Freberg
• Sunburn Remedy - Stan Freberg
• Ineffectual Drumroll - Stan Freberg
• Star Is Born - Stan Freberg, , Gloria Wood
• Shluderberg & Kurdle: Song and Dance Men! - Stan Freberg
• Toastal Engineering - Stan Freberg
• Dr. Zhivago - Stan Freberg,
• Irving Bell Story - Stan Freberg, Peter Leeds, Paul Stewart, Jesse White
• Fantastic Sound System - Stan Freberg, Naomi Lewis
• Tom Sweet and His Electric Milky Way Machine - Stan Freberg, Walter Tetley
• Modern Army Song - Peggy Taylor
• Jazz on Rubberbands - Stan Freberg
• Bad Hair Day - Stan Freberg
• Talk Radio - Stan Freberg
• North by North Gate - Stan Freberg
• Scared Witless - Stan Freberg, Bill Woodson
• Golf Date - Stan Freberg, Byron Kane
• Do People Really Listen to Radio Commercials? - Stan Freberg, Quincy Jones, Byron Kane, Sarah Vaughan
• Omaha!
• Dinner for the Common Cold? - Stan Freberg
• Taco Bell in China? - Stan Freberg
• Name Confusion: Mia? Tia? Lisa? - Stan Freberg
• Elton John Could Write a Song for You! - Stan Freberg
• "Smart" Toilet Seat? - Stan Freberg
• Territory's Great But You Gotta Have a State - Stan Freberg, Stubby Kaye
• Oregon, Oregon - Stan Freberg,
• Show Opening: "The New Stan Freberg Show" - Stan Freberg
• Pop Faithcorn: Trend Predictor - Stan Freberg
• Theater of the Mind - Donna Freberg, Stan Freberg
• Freberg Zone - Ray Bradbury, Stan Freberg,
• Father of the Year - Stan Freberg
• Spy Interview - Stan Freberg
• Conspiraski Theroy - Stan Freberg