Fred Fisher

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

Biography
Fisher was born in Cologne, Germany. 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.

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. Fisher died by suicide in Manhattan, New York, 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.

Selected compositions
Some of his other songs are;
 * "If the Man in the Moon Were a Coon," by Fred Fischer, Will Rossiter (1867–1954) (pub) (1905) (this was his first hit; it combined two then-popular song themes, Moon songs and Coon songs)
 * "Come Josephine In My Flying Machine," by Fred Fischer, Shapiro (pub) (1910)
 * "Peg O' My Heart, words by Alfred Bryan, music by Fred Fisher, Leo Feist (pub) (1913)
 * "Who paid the rent for Mrs. Rip Van Winkle?" words by Alfred Bryan, music by Fred Fischer, Leo Feist (pub) (1914)
 * "Lorraine (My Beautiful Alsace Lorraine)" lyrics by Alfred Bryan, music by Fred Fisher, McCarthy & Fisher (pub) (1917)
 * "They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me," words by Joseph McCarthy (1885–1943), music by Fred Fisher, McCarthy & Fisher (pub) (1917)
 * "The Popular Wobbly," parody of "They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me," words by T-Bone Slim (1880–1942), Industrial Workers of the World (pub) (1920)
 * "Dardanella," words by Fred Fisher, music by Felix Bernard (1897–1944) & Johnny S. Black (1895–1936), McCarthy & Fisher Inc. (1919)
 * "Chicago," by Fred Fisher, Fred Fisher (pub) (1922)
 * "That's When Your Heartaches Begin," by William Raskin, George Brown (Billy Hill), and Fred Fisher, Fred Fisher Music Co. (1940) (an Ink Spots tune recorded in 1957 by Elvis)
 * "Your Feet's Too Big," by Ada Benson, Fred Fisher, The Four Ink Spots (1936)
 * "I'd Rather Be Blue," words by Billy Rose, music by Fred Fisher, Irving Berlin (pub) (1928)
 * "Whispering Grass," words by Fred Fisher, music by Doris Fisher, Mills Music Inc. (pub) (1940)
 * 1917 "Pull the Cork Out of Erin Let the River Shannon Flow". L: Addison Burkhardt
 * 1918 "Come Across, Yankee Boy, Come Across". L: Alfred Bryan
 * 1918 "In the Harbor of My Mother's Arms". L: Monty Brice
 * 1918 "Little Blue Bonnet Girl"
 * 1918 "Mister McAdoo". L:Joseph McCarthy & Alfred Bryan
 * 1918 "Oui, Oui, Marie". L: Alfred Bryan
 * 1918 "Sink All Your Ships in the Ocean Blue". L: Jack Glogau
 * 1918 "Wee, Wee, Marie (Will You Do Zis for Me)". L: Joseph McCarthy & Alfred Bryan
 * 1918 "We're All Comrades Now". L: Joseph McCarthy
 * 1918 "When Yankee Doodle Sails Upon the Good Ship Home Sweet Home". L: Addison Burkhardt

Filmography

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