Sunday Morning Vault: Stan Freberg--The Yellow Rose of Texas (1955)

    When many think of music parody over the last 25 or so years, the first person to come to mind is "Weird" Al Yankovic. Since the mid-80's he has lovingly poked at the hits of the day. Some thought him brilliant, others (remember Coolio's first response to "Amish Paradise") not so much. Yankovic acknowledges his greatest influence was Stan Freberg, a guy who did it with a much sharper wit (and sharper tongue as well) than anything done since.
     Freberg, born in Pasadena CA, got his start as a voice character on cartoons during the late 40's, soon began making parody's of the top hits of the day, the first that became a hit was of Johnny Ray's "Cry" in 1952. At first Ray was furious at someone making fun of the song until he realized that it was helping record sales. For the better part of the 50's, he would poke fun at the new medium of television and of rock and roll (which he hated). His most popular song as far as chart action is concerned was "The Yellow Rose of Texas" where he parodied Mitch Miller, in 1955.

For many of us younger, Freberg took his skills of satire to television as an ad man in the 60s, developing some of the most iconic commercials of the era, like this brilliant one with dancer Ann Miller for Campbell's Soup.

  

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The Sunday Morning Vault: Bobby Darin--Mack the Knife (1959)

     Although not always successful, it would not be a stretch to call Bobby Darin one of the most versatile performers (if you define it through quantity) in the modern era. From teen pop to Frank Sinatra style crooning, folk rock, rock, and even a bit of Motown, Darin squeezed a lot of material in his 37 years on this planet. Not all of these attempts were successful, but if you take the time to look at his body of work, he accomplished much more than you would expect.
     Almost 40 years after his death he is defined though "Mack the Knife", which is probably why so many see him as just a night club act. "Mack" was written by the team of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht for their musical drama, "Die Dreigroschenoper" or as it's known in English, "The Threepenny Opera" in 1928.
     Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky wrote the English lyrics for it's Broadway debut in 1933, which failed badly. It fared better in the early 50's off-Broadway adaptation written by Marc Blitzstein. This is the version that we all know and Darin recorded in 1959. Louie Armstrong did the first swing version in 1956. Interestingly enough, the name Lotte Lenya which is found in the song belonged to Kurt Weill's widow who was at Armstrong's recording. As a bit of a tribute to it's original author, he spontaneously added her to the names in the song.
     Darin recorded the song and it was released as a single. Despite it's being an increasingly popular song in Darin's nightclub act, he was hesitant about it's release. There were those (Dick Clark among them) who thought that it's association with an opera would cause it not to sell well to teenagers. Darin, who already had three top 10 hits previous ("Splish Spash", "Queen of the Hop" and "Dream Lover") and was seen as a bit of a teen idol, was not sure about putting out a song about a murderer. The final decision was made by Ahmet Ertegun from Atlantic Records and Darin soon had his only number 1 hit.
     For those who are not aware of his full career, you might be interested to take a further look beyond here. He had a total of 21 top 40 hits with 9 of those being in the top ten. Although none of them were quite like the most swinging song about murder ever....

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Sunday Morning Vault: Richard Chamberlain--Three Stars Will Shine Tonight (1962)

     Richard Chamberlain has had a long, varied and successful career. His list of accomplishments range from the stage where he has played in latter versions of My Fair Lady and  The Sound of Music. He played the title role of "Hamlet" with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, being the first American to do it since John Barrymore in 1929.
      He has, and continues to act in films. His first being in 1960, and as recent as last year played roles in several movies. However, his fame for most of us has been on the television screen. From his role as intern Dr. Kildare in 1961, he has been a star on the tube. For folks my age he is best known for his role in the mini series', Centennial, Shogun, and especially The Thorn Birds. In the last several years he could have been seen on episodes of the Drew Carey Show, Will and Grace, Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, and Chuck.
     For our purposes here however, it was his pleasant voice that gave him an opportunity to record several singles from 1962-1964. He had three top 40 hits, with this one, the theme from Dr. Kildare, being his highest charting song from the summer of 1962. Happy Sunday Everyone!

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