Dave Frishberg

David "Dave" Frishberg (born March 23, 1933) is an American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer and lyricist born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Many of his songs have been performed by artists such as Blossom Dearie, Rosemary Clooney, Shirley Horn,^[1] Anita O'Day, Michael Feinstein, Irene Kral, Diana Krall, Stacey Kent, John Pizzarelli, and Mel Tormé.

Frishberg is also noted as having written the music and lyrics for "I'm Just a Bill", the song about the forlorn legislative writ in the ABC Schoolhouse Rock! series, which was subsequently transformed into the popular revue "Schoolhouse Rock Live". For "Schoolhouse Rock!" he also wrote and performed "Walkin' on Wall Street", a song that describes how the stock market works, and "$7.50 Once a Week", a song about saving and balancing a budget.

He also wrote "Van Lingle Mungo", a novelty song consisting solely of the names of Major League Baseball players.

Biography

Frishberg resisted learning classical piano as a boy, developing an interest in blues and boogie-woogie by listening to recordings by Pete Johnson and Jay McShann. As a teenager he played in the house band at the Flame in St. Paul where Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, and Johnny Hodges appeared. After graduating from the University of Minnesota as a journalism major in 1955, Frishberg spent two years in the Air Force.^[2]

In 1957, Frishberg moved to New York City,^[3] where he played solo piano at the Duplex in Greenwich Village. He first became known for his work with Carmen McRae, Ben Webster, Gene Krupa, Bud Freeman, Eddie Condon, Al Cohn, and Zoot Sims. Later he was celebrated for writing and performing his own, frequently humorous, songs, including favorites "I'm Hip" (lyrics only, in collaboration with Bob Dorough ^[4]), "Blizzard of Lies",^[5] "My Attorney Bernie" (his most famous),^[6] "Do You Miss New York", "Peel Me a Grape", "Quality Time", "Slappin' the Cakes on Me", and "Van Lingle Mungo", the lyrics of which entirely consist of the names of old-time baseball players.^[7]

Frishberg cites songwriter Frank Loesser as an influence,^[8] and has said that Loesser's "Baby, It's Cold Outside", along with Willie Nelson's "Crazy", are songs he wished he had written. Like Loesser before him, Frishberg has also worked strictly as a lyricist on a number of occasions; his collaborators include Johnny Mandel, Alan Broadbent, Al Cohn, Blossom Dearie, David Shire, Julius Wechter, Dan Barrett, Bob Brookmeyer, Bob Dorough, Gerry Mulligan and Johnny Hodges.^[4]

Frishberg was the co-recipient of the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song in 1981, having written the lyric to "Baby Talk" from the Burt Reynolds comedy film Paternity.

Dave Frishberg is a longtime baseball fan, having been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) since 1984.^[9] In addition to the "Van Lingle Mungo" song, he also wrote a tribute to an early 20th century pitching great, "Matty", which was included along with "Play Ball" and several other tunes with references to baseball in their lyrics in a 1994 CD, Quality Time.^[10]

Select discography

As bandleader

• Retromania (Arbors Records)
• Do You Miss New York? (Arbors Records)
• Quality Time (Sterling Records)

As a soloist

• By Himself (Arbors Records)

With Jim Goodwin

• Double Play (Arbors Records)

With Rebecca Kilgore

• The Starlit Hour (Arbors Records)
• Not A Care In The World (Arbors Records)
• Why Fight the Feeling: Songs By Frank Loesser (Arbors Records)

Personal

Frishberg currently lives in Portland, Oregon.^[11]

Further reading

• Balliett, Whitney (1988). American Singers: 27 Portraits in Song. New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504610-2.

References

External links

• Official website