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Date Posted: 21:16:23 06/12/08 Thu
Author: Child's Garden
Subject: Re: Tommy James & The Shondells
In reply to: tce 's message, "Re: Tommy James & The Shondells" on 08:05:29 06/10/08 Tue

Freberg had his moments but his later stuff did indeed stink. He struck me as a jazz guy who hated corny pop songs like "Yellow Rose of Texas" and had an old fart's contempt for rock and roll. He mocked "Great Pretender" and "Heartbreak Hotel" on record. But he also recorded one gem: "Wunnerful! Wunnerful!" a searingly nasty Lawrence Welk parody. The Welk band was re-created in all its awful glory by none other than the legendary big band arranger and ex-Pittsburgher Billy May, who combined his flair for satire with his scorn for Welk's cornball music.

Welk, it's said, was not amused.

>The vision of a 43 year old Stan Freberg in mod
>clothes and an afro would be enough to set anyone off.
> He was once funny in a mid-fifties sort of way, but I
>never heard him do anything that didn't sound like it
>came from the fifties. Apparently, he was
>compensating with his "look."
>
>>I remember watching Johnny Carson one night and the
>>great satirist and advertising genius Stan Freberg was
>>a guest. This was around 1968. Stan, being from
>>Hollywood, had a big afro and "mod" clothes and talked
>>about an investment he made in a potential chain of
>>restaurants and the first one was around Pittsburgh or
>>Greensburg or Latrobe, somewhere. he came to the area
>>to look at it and said he took a lot of crap off the
>>people there who didn't like his looks. This was not
>>quite an "Easy Rider" state for long-hairs in the
>>60's, but it wasn't far from it, either.
>>
>>>I'm old enough to remember when George Magura, the
>>>bespectacled, bearded one caused scandals in the
>>>Greensburg area just by walking around with (for that
>>>time and mentality) "long hair" and had to take a lot
>>>of crap from anyone over the age of 18.
>>>
>>>>I got a call a couple weeks ago from my friend, Mike
>>>>Vucish, a.k.a, Mike Vale, who plays bass and
>co-wote
>>>>songs like, "Crystal Blue Persuasion," "She," "Ball
>>of
>>>>Fire," and tons of others. He tells me that Tommy
>>and
>>>>the group are back together, in the studio. The
>>>>originals aren't touring, however. They have a
>>>>Christmas album coming out. Also, they've
>>>>re-assembled "Hog Heaven," the group Mike and some
>>>>other Shondells formed after Tommy went solo. In
>>>>fact, Tommy's even doing some writing for them.
>Mike
>>>>seems very excited about both reunions.
>>>>
>>>>I have to laugh, when I think that this group of
>>guys,
>>>>first seen by Tommy at Harry's Danceland in Latrobe,
>>>>initially had no interest in joining the unknown kid
>>>>from Niles, Michigan.
>>>>
>>>>Ed Weigle

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