Katana VentraIP

Fred Fisher

Fred Fisher (born Alfred Breitenbach, September 30, 1875 – January 14, 1942)[1] was a German-born American songwriter and Tin Pan Alley music publisher.

For other people called Fred or Frederick Fisher, see Frederick Fisher (disambiguation).

Fred Fisher

Alfred Breitenbach

Fred Fischer

(1875-09-30)September 30, 1875
Cologne, Germany

January 14, 1942(1942-01-14) (aged 66)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.

Songwriter, music publisher

1900s–1940

Biography[edit]

Fisher was born in Cologne, Germany.[1] His parents were Max and Theodora Breitenbach. After visiting the United States in 1892, he immigrated in 1900, where he adopted the name Fred Fischer. He founded the Fred Fischer Music Publishing Company in 1907. During World War I he changed his surname to Fisher to make it seem less Germanic.[2]


In 1914, Fred Fisher married Ana Fisher (née Davidovitch, later anglicized as Davis; born 1896). Their children – Daniel ("Danny"; 1920–2001), Marvin (1916–1993), and Doris (1915–2003) – also wrote songs professionally.[3] Fisher died by suicide in Manhattan, New York,[4][5] and was interred at Maimonides Cemetery in Brooklyn.


In 1970, Fred Fisher was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Ripley's "Believe It or Not" column credited him with writing more Irish songs than anyone else.[6]

"If the Man in the Moon Were a Coon," by Fred Fischer, Will Rossiter (1867–1954) (pub) (1905)  497077685 (this was his first hit; it combined two then-popular song themes, Moon songs and Coon songs)

OCLC

"," by Fred Fischer, Shapiro (pub) (1910) OCLC 6586232

Come Josephine In My Flying Machine

", words by Alfred Bryan, music by Fred Fisher, Leo Feist (pub) (1913) OCLC 11149171

Peg O' My Heart

"Who paid the rent for Mrs. Rip Van Winkle?" words by Alfred Bryan, music by Fred Fischer, (pub) (1914) OCLC 49782832

Leo Feist

"" lyrics by Alfred Bryan, music by Fred Fisher, McCarthy & Fisher (pub) (1917) OCLC 13465614

Lorraine (My Beautiful Alsace Lorraine)

"They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me," words by (1885–1943), music by Fred Fisher, McCarthy & Fisher (pub) (1917) OCLC 17811063

Joseph McCarthy

"," parody of "They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me," words by T-Bone Slim (1880–1942), Industrial Workers of the World (pub) (1920)

The Popular Wobbly

"," words by Fred Fisher, music by Felix Bernard (1897–1944) & Johnny S. Black (1895–1936), McCarthy & Fisher Inc. (1919) OCLC 10206915

Dardanella

"," by Fred Fisher, Fred Fisher (pub) (1922) OCLC 20597644

Chicago

"," by William Raskin, George Brown (Billy Hill), and Fred Fisher, Fred Fisher Music Co. (1940) (an Ink Spots tune recorded in 1957 by Elvis) OCLC 46387847

That's When Your Heartaches Begin

"," by Ada Benson, Fred Fisher, The Four Ink Spots (1936) OCLC 497463463

Your Feet's Too Big

"," words by Billy Rose, music by Fred Fisher, Irving Berlin (pub) (1928) OCLC 25122790

I'd Rather Be Blue

"," words by Fred Fisher, music by Doris Fisher, Mills Music Inc. (pub) (1940) OCLC 26008157

Whispering Grass

Some of his other songs are;

(1928) – Fanny Brice sings I'd Rather Be Blue, a Fisher-Billy Rose collaboration that was later covered by Barbra Streisand.

My Man

(1949) – This film is a fictionalized Hollywood biography featuring many of Fisher's songs. A Tin Pan Alley promoter (Mark Stevens) turns serious composer Fred Breitenbach (S.Z. Sakall) into songwriter Fred Fisher.

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

Come Josephine In My Flying Machine 1910

Come Josephine In My Flying Machine 1910

They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me 1917

They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me 1917

Dardanella 1919

Dardanella 1919

Chicago 1922

Chicago 1922

American National Biography. 24 volumes. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999

American Popular Songs. From the Revolutionary War to the present. Edited by David Ewen. New York: Random House, 1966

American Songwriters. By David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1987

The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Third edition. New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1966

ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Fourth edition. Compiled for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers by Jaques Cattell Press. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1980

Biographical Dictionary of American Music. By Charles Eugene Claghorn. West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing Co., 1973

Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 1: January 1946 – July 1949. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1949

Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 6: September 1961 – August 1964. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1965

Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 15: September 1986 – August 1988. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1988

Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 16: September 1988 – August 1990. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1990

The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz, 1900–1950. Three volumes. By Roger D. Kinkle. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1974. Biographies are located in Volumes 2 and 3

Dictionary of Pseudonyms. Third edition. By Adrian Room. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Third edition. Eight volumes. Edited by Colin Larkin. London: MUZE, 1998. Grove's Dictionaries, New York, 1998

The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Composers and their music. Supplement. By William H. Rehrig. Westerville, OH: Integrity Press, 1996

The New American Dictionary of Music. By Philip D. Morehead with Anne MacNeil. New York: Dutton, 1991

The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Four volumes. Edited by and Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Press, 1986

H. Wiley Hitchcock

Notable Names in the American Theatre. Clifton, NJ: James T. White & Co., 1976. Earlier edition published as The Biographical Encyclopaedia and Who's Who of the American Theatre

The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. By Peter Gammond. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1991

Popular American Composers. From Revolutionary times to the present. A biographical and critical guide. First edition. Compiled and edited by David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1962

Songwriters. A biographical dictionary with discographies. By Nigel Harrison. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998

Sweet and Lowdown. America's popular song writers. By Warren Craig. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1978. Biographies appear in the 'After Tin Pan Alley' section, beginning on page 91

Tin Pan Alley. An encyclopedia of the golden age of American song. By David A. Jasen. New York: Routledge, 2003

General references Source Citation:


Inline citations

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Fred Fisher

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Fred Fisher

at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

Fred Fisher recordings

Fred Fisher at the Sheet Music Consortium