Fifty years ago today, give or take a day, my all-time favorite record was released: Volume One of Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America. The ranking authority on funny recordings, Dr. Demento, has called it either the best comedy album in history, or the best history album in comedy. It may also be the best musical comedy that's never been performed on a stage, though it came close.
The brilliant Mr. Freberg planned it as a three-volume set: Volume One started with Columbus and took us up to the Revolutionary War. Volume Two would carry things through World War I and then the third release would bring things up to the present day. Stan wrote the songs, co-wrote the sketches and played (in the first one) Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and several other historical figures. He was aided in his efforts by superstar arranger/conductor Billy May and by a superb cast including Paul Frees, June Foray, Jesse White, Byron Kane and Peter Leeds. The tunes are wonderful, the jokes are funny and eminently quotable…and there's even a smidgen of real history in there. A great record.
I'm not sure exactly when I discovered it — around '63, I guess. Maybe a bit earlier. I bought a copy at a record store on Westwood Boulevard in West L.A., just north of Pico. If you know the area: It was located right where Junior's Delicatessen now sits. I loved that album, played the hell out of it…and haunted the record store, asking them every week if Volume Two had arrived yet. I couldn't understand what was keeping it. Little did I know I'd have to wait more than thirty years — until 1996! — and assist in its production.
What was keeping it? Shortly after Volume One was released, the legendary Broadway producer David Merrick decided that the collective three parts would make a dandy stage production. A deal was made, Stan finished writing it all, and work began on what was to be a Broadway musical starring Freberg himself. Plans for further records were postponed until after the show opened…but the show never opened. Merrick was a notoriously difficult person to deal with and Freberg was not the first creative talent to have problems with him, nor the last. Among other tactics, Merrick liked to keep people off-balance by pitting them against each other, building up confidences and then tearing them down. In other words, he liked to sabotage his own productions. It's amazing that so many of them not only made it to Opening Night but even became hits.
This one didn't…and due to some combination of lingering legalities, lost momentum and changes in the record business, Stan was unable to restart the series on vinyl. He went on to other projects but spent a lot of time answering the musical question, "Hey, when's Volume Two coming out?" The first time I met him (around 1977), he began explaining it to me before I'd even finished asking about it.
Well, finally he got the second part done, not as a record but as a CD. Volume Three is currently in the works and there are discussions again about putting the whole thing on stage in a big, splashy production. It's still a great idea and great material and if you think I'm about to give you a link to order a CD from Amazon, you're wrong. It's out of print and the folks who have them are asking a hundred bucks or more for a copy. What I will tell you is that you can download Volume One from iTunes for ten bucks. They also have a lot of Freberg's fine unAmerican works, as well. All are highly recommended.
I can't tell you how important this man's creations — this one, especially — have been to me. I'm not sure I would today be a writer of allegedly funny things had I not discovered Freberg at an impressionable age…and I'm hardly the only person who can or should make that claim. And you know what? Fifty years after its release, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America is still as wonderful as ever and still capable of showing anyone how to be smart and funny at the same time. Happy Five-Oh, Stan…and thanks again. And again. And again.