Here's a little treasure…one of the lavishly-produced kids' records done by Capitol Records. It's Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party and it came with a full-color booklet that you followed along as you played the record. The cast is rather amazing, especially when you find out who it is doing the voice of Mickey.
It's Stan Freberg. Stan did a lot of voices on Capitol's childrens' records but I believe this was the only time he did Mickey. Usually, a Mr. Walt Disney played Mickey and when he got tired of doing it, he handed the job over to Jimmy MacDonald, who was mainly a sound effects engineer. In fact, Jimmy handled sound effects on this record and did some other voices but Freberg played Mickey, reportedly at Walt's request.
Exactly when this record was produced is the subject of some argument among the kind of folks who'd argue about this kind of thing. Some say 1953, some say 1954 and some say 1955. I asked Stan and he wasn't sure. Whenever it was, it was after he was already a major creator of comedy records for Capitol. He did "John and Marsha" in 1951. In addition to voicing The Mouse, Stan further demonstrates his great versatility in the roles of Doc, Sneezy, maybe another dwarf or two, Dumbo (!), Br'er Fox, Joe Carioca (speaking, not singing), The Crocodile, The White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter…and hey, how about that great Jerry Colonna impression as The March Hare?
Clarence Nash did the voice of Donald Duck. Vance "Pinto" Colvig played Goofy, Practical Pig, Grumpy and he probably provided the sounds of Pluto. June Foray played Snow White, Thumper, Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Alice. Nick Stewart, who originated the role in Song of the South was Br'er Bear and I think that's Johnny Lee reprising his part as Br'er Rabbit. Jimmy MacDonald played Gus Gus and Jaq.
A few of the other voices, I'm not sure about…and I imagine some of the one-line parts are studio singers. It's a great cast but they were fibbing in part to advertise this as featuring "The original voices of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other famous Disney characters." Neither Stan nor June did any of those voices in the movies.
Give a listen and don't worry about turning any pages when Donald commands. The video will handle that for you…