Stan Freberg

Stan Freberg, who skewered pop culture with satirical records and did cartoon voices for nearly six decades, died today. He was 88. His son Donovan confirmed the news in a Facebook post but offered no details.

Freberg began his six-decade career doing impersonations on Cliffie Stone’s radio program in 1943. Soon after he began voicing characters for the now-classic Warner Bros cartoons, working with the genre’s king, Mel Blanc. He voiced Junyer Bear, Beaky Buzzard (“A-nope-nope-nope”) and Tosh, one of the two Goofy Gophers opposite Blanc, but perhaps the young actor’s most enduring portrayal was the seemingly slow Pete Puma. Said cat famously was asked by Bugs Bunny how many lumps of sugar he wanted in his tea. “Oh, three or four,” Pete drawled — before Bugs’ numerous shots to the melon with a mallet produced said lumps.

He scored a national No. 1 hit in 1953 with “St. George And The Dragonet,” a riff on Dragnet that was the first track on the genre-spanning 1977 triple LP 25 Years Of Recorded Comedy and enjoyed a second wave of popularity decades later on Dr. Demento’s radio show. He also hit the pop charts with such tracks as the seasonal chestnut “Nuttin’ For Christmas,” “Banana Boat Song” and “Wun’erful Wun’erful,” a spot-on slap at The Lawrence Welk Show. Freberg did a typically flawless impersonation of the polka-drenched host, who implored on the record: “Turn off the bubble machine! … Help! The whole ballroom is shoving off to sea!” Later in the decade, rock ‘n’ roll became a favorite Freberg target. In 1999, Rhino Records issued a box set of his recordings titled The Tip Of The Freberg: The Stan Freberg Collection 1951-1998.

Born on August 7, 1926, in Pasadena, Freberg would amass dozens of movie and TV credits including Lady And The Tramp (1955) and It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). He also was a regular on the 1958 summer replacement series The Chevy Show. In the early 1960s, he launched a successful career in advertising, winning more than 20 Clio Awards for his TV spots and earning the Los Angeles Area Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 2006.

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I remember Aku used to play some his records on his show.  One I remember was Elderly Man River.  He's also in the documentary I Know That Voice (which is currently on Netflix).  Looking at youtube, I remember another one was Banana Boat (Day-O).