By the '50s,
Stan Freberg had firmly established himself in radio. That's when he turned to the record companies to release his twisted takes on popular music and television shows. Many of the musical tracks are set up as a battle between the singer and at least one antagonist ("Yellow Rose of Texas," "Banana Boat," "C'est Si Bon," "Rock Island Line," and "Great Pretender"), but
Freberg can also play it straight, like on the cover of the Music Man track "Ya Got Trouble." As with other novelty releases, hearing all of them in a row can be a bit much. Thankfully, they're broken up somewhat by
Freberg's television parodies: "John and Marsha" pokes fun at soap operas, while "St. George and the Dragonet" does a dead-on Dragnet.