Who is Seth MacFarlane other than the most recent multi-talented Oscar host? Actually the credits are numerous: actor, singer/dancer, animator, screenwriter, comedian, producer and director: creator of the show Family Guy, co-creator of American Dad! and The Cleveland Show for which he also voices many of the show’s various characters.
MacFarlane may have come under fire for some of the raunchy humor he employed during the Oscars, but he doesn’t have to rest his reputation on one show he hosted.
His most recent claim to fame was his first feature-length comedy film, Ted. The film stars Mark Wahlberg as an adult who, as a kid, wished his teddy bear would come to life. MacFarlane voiced and provided motion capture for the bear.
MacFarlane’s jokes at the Oscars, which included a musical number aimed at the Best Actress nominees called We Saw Your Boobs and a joke about Chris Brown and Rihanna, didn’t sit well with some viewers. (Django is a movie where a woman is subjected to violence, or as we call it, a Chris Brown and Rihanna date movie.)
But people have complained for years that the Oscars were boring and irrelevant and the producers were pleased with MacFarlane’s performance.
But here’s the thing that stood out for me: he’s a superb song and dance man which led me to find his CD, Music is Better Than Words, where he proves to be an exceptionally smooth ‘crooner.’
In his early years, MacFarlane trained as a pianist and singer with Lee and Sally Sweetland, the vocal coaches of Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra. MacFarlane is an experienced live performer, playing to sold out audiences at London’s Royal Albert Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall, as well as lending his time and voice to numerous charity benefits.
In 2012, it was announced he would again appear at the Proms with the John Wilson Orchestra in a concert celebrating Broadway musicals. He signed a record deal with Universal Republic Records and released his debut studio album, Music Is Better Than Words, in 2011.
MacFarlane said at the time, “It’s rare in this day and age to have the opportunity to create an album that celebrates the classic, sophisticated sound of rich, lush swing orchestrations. It will be an absolute joy to sing this music, and I look forward to working with the entire team at Universal Republic on what we intend to make an exceptional project.”
MacFarlane delivered a fully orchestrated album of 1940’s and ‘50’s classic show tunes. With his recent Emmy nomination for Music & Lyrics, MacFarlane felt that the timing was right to release his debut solo album. A music enthusiast, MacFarlane is known as one of the few showrunners in Hollywood who utilizes a complete orchestra and talented composers on a weekly basis to score his three animated shows.
In addition to showtunes, the album features some original material, including the song She’s Wonderful Too written by Joel McNeely for an episode of the Lucasfilms television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Composed as a short piece for the show, MacFarlane and McNeely (with the blessing of George Lucas) composed additional lyrics and melodies to make a new and more complete song.
The album was recorded in the legendary Capitol Records Recording Studio where Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney and many others recorded prolific albums. The production replicated the same microphones, mic pre-amps and signal chains that those recordings used.
MacFarlane’s album was nominated in the “Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category” at the 54th Grammy Awards. Music is Better than Words received a score of 52 out of 100 on Metacritic’s compilation of music critic reviews.
by Pamela Hulse Andrews