American satirist and comedy writer whose humor and creative imagination helped him win 21 Clio awards in the advertising industry. Freberg, an enormously talented composer whose intricate rhymes and uncanny ear for song styles, sold millions of satirical comedy single records that put him on top of the pop music charts in the late 1950s. His talents also earned him three Emmy Awards and a Grammy.
His father, Victor Friberg, was a Baptist minister and his mother, Evelyn, a housewife. Freberg grew up an only child in his South Pasadena home. He felt lonely and spent hours listening to the radio comedy routines of Fred Allen and Jack Benny to amuse himself. The radio was magic to Freberg’s imagination. His uncle worked for CBS and found abandoned radio scripts in the trash can and retrieved them for Freberg. He delighted in the scripts, practicing the routines over and over again. In high school, Freberg gave his first comedy performance for his fellow students. Encouraged by their applause he went to a Hollywood talent agency in 1944 after his high school graduation and landed a job at Warner Brothers studio a few days later. He started in the entertainment industry supplying the cartoon voices for the Looney Tunes cartoons.
By 1951 he scored his first big success with the comedy record “John & Marsha,” gaining a Top 40 hit. He interspersed his career with commercial pitches for anything from Meadowgold milk, Pittsburgh paint to Heinz soup. In 1953, he made another comedy record hit with “St. George and the Dragon,” a colorful spoof on the Dragnet theme for Capitol Records. It sold a million copies in three weeks. Capitol released 30 single records and six albums of his popular satirical style comedy. In 1957, he had his own 15-week run radio program, “The Stan Freberg Show.” His show was popular in the beginning but his audience began to falter. Rock music surged up the pop charts and the market for comedy singles was on the way to collapse. His most famous album was “Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America.” He enjoyed the most visibility in the ’60s.
In 1956, Freberg was invited by the Contadina food company to create a humorous ad for their tomato paste radio spots. The ads were a success and Freberg’s second career in the advertising industry would receive 21 Clio awards in more than 20 years in the business.
Freberg lived with his wife and business manager, Donna Andresen in Beverly Hills, California. They had married in 1959, their daughter Donna Jean was born in 1957 and son Donavan in 1971. He was widowed in 2000, and was remarried, to Betty Hunter, from 2001 until his death.
His memoirs, “It Only Hurts When I Laugh,” were published in 1988. Freberg died on 7 April 2015, aged 88, at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, California from pneumonia.
Link to Wikipedia biography