Chicago Tribune (MCT) -- CHICAGO - Fifty years ago this week, Capitol Records released an album destined to conquer the hearts and minds of comedy nerds around this round, round world. It carried the grandiose title "Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Vol. 1: The Early Years." The label's promotional materials sold this "original musical revue for records" as "not just another comedy record, but a whole show ... the most extravagant album ever produced." Sound a...

Stan Freberg Heartbreak Hotel Capitol 3480 1956 MP3 File Yes Virginia, Jukeboxmafia is still alive. 2010 has been a busy and event filled year, which has left me little time or energy to post as often as I would like. Some viewers had requested an improvement in sound file quality, which I as of yet have not been able to deliver. I've decided however that low quality files are better than none at all, so I will continue to post as usual until the issue is resolved [...]

Here's a tie-in post. This ties in Stagger Lee with my recent series of posts on Break-In Records. Spencer and Spencer were actually Dickie Goodman, king of the break-in records, and Detroit DJ Micky Shorr. A bit of clarification before you download: This isn't actually a break-in record per se, using song lyrics as dialogue. In fact, it only samples two records: Lloyd Price's then-current hit version of Stag, and Stan Freberg 's epic takedown of Lawrence Welk . The Freberg record was still very well-known in 1959, two years after its release, and [...]
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I've collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their "song obsessions of the week." Quite often it's easy to explain why the song is good; it's much hard to explain why we're obsessed. Maybe you'll become obsessed with one of these. - Adrian ( me ): Octopus Project - Wet Gold (mp3) ( [...]

Our final post for Vegas/Canyon week here at She'll Grow Back also marks the introduction of a new feature: Silly Sundays. After this week's near-death of one of my favorite blogs, Dr. Forrest's Cheeze Factory , I've realized it's time to post or repost some of my favorite silly recordings. (This week's is more serious than most, and much longer too.) If I had twelve hours to spend on this post, I would put up an additional webpage detailing all the cultural references in this fifty-year old recording, but I don't have anywhere near that long.* So [...]

In 1955, rock was young and unformed. It had been born of hillbilly and rhythm and blues and jazz, but it hadn't been encapsulated in any one person yet. Elvis Presley (you don't need the links today, I think) changed all that. In 1955 ( click here to read the full history of the song and the recording session -- highly recommended ) a man named Glen Reeves ( via ) recorded a demo of a new song intended for Elvis, and so he mimicked Elvis's style. Elvis Presley made that song into a classic. That same year, [...]
:: John And Marsha :: :: The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise :: :: Try :: :: I've Got You Under My Skin :: Here's news: I've always loved records, and some of the earliest records I loved were comedy records, probably because they made me laugh (duh). An Aunt and Uncle had a Stan Freberg album, and I loved to listen to "John and Marsha". Even when I was very young I understood what was