20 Curious But True Facts You Might Not Know About Dean Friedman

1.     After it was banned by the BBC, Dean Friedman’s song, ‘McDonald’s Girl’, off his ‘Rumpled Romeo’ album, was covered by the Canadian band, Barenaked Ladies and became the band’s first radio hit in Canada: https://youtu.be/VkEKSBoKkeA

2.     Dean Friedman designed and programmed the world’s first Virtual Reality (VR) Video Game ever to appear on national TV, for Nickelodeon TV: https://youtu.be/OHsKv6Ecd6U    

3.     Dean Friedman wrote, performed and produced the musical soundtrack to the hit TV series, ‘Boon’, starring Michael Elphick and Neal Morrissey.  https://youtu.be/VhSgfnkxg_c  [All music, except for Jim Diamond’s opening theme song, written, performed and produced by Dean Friedman for five seasons.]

4.     Dean Friedman wrote the first consumer guide for music synthesizers in 1985, ‘The Complete Guide to Synthesizers, Sequencers and Drum Machines’ [AMSCO]: http://amzn.com/082562410X

5.     Dean Friedman’s follow up book, ‘Synthesizer Basics’ became a classic text book at universities and music conservatories around the world and his three part video series, ‘Intro to Synthesis’ eventually went viral on YouTube, 30 years after it was produced!: https://youtu.be/atvtBE6t48M

6.     Dean Friedman wrote, performed and produced the musical soundtrack to the cult-horror-classic film, ‘I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle’, starring Boon leads, Neal Morrissey and Michael Elphick: https://youtu.be/fbvqz-nv7Zw

7.     Dean Friedman invented the ‘Music Atrium’ - a musical playground for kids - a half-dozen strange and whimsical musical instruments, with names like the Booble, the Boing-D-Boing, the Jingle-Lingle-Lily, the Honkblatt, the Tone Stones and the Laser Harp, that were originally featured at the Eureka! Children’s Museum, in Halifax, UK and were subsequently reproduced at leading children’s museums and theme parks around the world. https://youtu.be/_qiQfA4cgGI

8.     Thirty years after it was it was officially banned by the BBC, Dean Friedman’s song, ‘McDonald’s Girl’ suddenly went viral on YouTube, covered by A Capella groups around the world, leading, eventually, to its being featured in a national TV/Radio campaign for McDonald’s, performed by The Blenders who had a #1 hit with the song in Norway:  https://youtu.be/EGqQLWqo48c

9.     Dean Friedman was one of the very first recording artists to crowdfund his own albums when, back in 2002 - a full six years before Kickstarter was launched – Friedman invited his fans to pre-order his next CD, ‘The Treehouse Journals’. The only other previous crowdfunded album project was by the British band, Marillion, the previous year. Friedman has been crowdfunding all of his independently released albums ever since.

10. In 2005, Dean Friedman’s UK Tour was almost cancelled after he issued a press release stating that the first 10 people to purchase his ‘Squirrels in the Attic’ CD would receive a free packet of cannabis seeds, which had been donated by his sponsor, Goldenseed.co.uk, an online distributor of cannabis seeds. The CD featured a track titled, ‘Doint, Doint, It’s Just a Little Joint’, espousing the virtues and relative benign attributes of cannabis as compared to the infinitely more lethal toxicity of alcohol: http://www.deanfriedman.com/media/media_pressrelease_0101506_UKTourAlmostCancelled-01.htm

11. The comedian, David Baddiel, wrote an entire episode of his SKY TV series, ‘The Baddiel Syndrome’, based on attending a Dean Friedman gig and its aftermath, which featured Friedman playing himself in an hilarious cameo performance: Part 1 of 2: https://youtu.be/U3pBFC2eBlc ; Part 2 of 2: https://youtu.be/Yp7x1HGwDd8

12. Dean Friedman was once smuggled onto the set of The Big Breakfast at 6:30am to surprise the host and an ardent Friedman fan, Gaby Roslin. The surprise followed weeks of ‘Dean Friedman Days’ on the show, during which the studio crew dressed up as Friedman wearing Dean Friedman mustaches and wigs to tease, Gaby. The surprise culminated with Friedman jumping out of a box and joining Gaby for a rendition of ‘Lucky Stars’: https://youtu.be/aYAD4F0c6n8

13. Dean Friedman was once introduced on TV by Britain’s Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, as seen at 49:05 on VH1’s ‘I Love the 70’s’: https://youtu.be/y0fTwiPKz7E?t=46m40s.

14. The legendary British punk band, Half Man, Half Biscuit, had a bestselling EP which contained an infamous track, written by its lead singer/songwriter, Nigel Blackwell, entitled, ‘The Bastard Son of Dean Friedman’: https://youtu.be/ZE_CUkUeWk8 Friedman vehemently denied ever having met Nigel’s mum and answered with his own recording of ‘A Baker’s Tale’ – the hitherto untold tale of Nigel Blackwell’s dubious origins: https://youtu.be/29Y8CwIRQM4 Friedman was invited to perform his comical repost, ‘A Baker’s Tale’, at a Half Man, Half Biscuit gig in Wolverhampton in what Biscuit fans have described as ‘an iconic moment in rock & roll history!’: https://youtu.be/FquVTumC0Us  

15. The great, Kenny Everett, once introduced Dean Friedman on The Kenny Everett Video Show while hanging upside down in the TV studio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw0m6h6Tvks

16. BBC Radio Presenter, Janey Lee Grace, once performed the duet ‘Lucky Stars’ with Friedman on Top of the Pops 2, while unbeknownst to TV viewers she was 8 ½ months pregnant, a fact cleverly disguised by deft camera angles: https://youtu.be/mCSkkCiBOOY

17. Lenny Henry once flew Friedman from NY to England to surprise his then wife, Dawn French, for her 50^th birthday party, after she accused him of ‘accidently’ throwing away her favorite Dean Friedman album during a house move. Dawn French has described Friedman as the Stephen Sondheim of popular music, for his literary lyrics and deft songwriting.

18. Dean Friedman once performed his classic song, ‘Lucky Stars’ with the world renown, Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets:  https://youtu.be/6LDVQkVYiHs

19. Dean Friedman’s next door neighbors actually moved out of the neighborhood after hearing this song written by Friedman off his album, ‘Squirrels in the Attic’, entitled, ‘Death to the Neighbors’: https://youtu.be/tB0Xnsaj8pE

20. Despite scurrilous rumors to the contrary, Dean Friedman’s penis is ‘Just the Right Size’!: https://youtu.be/oUE6LlSM1QQ Seriously.

Bonus Facts!

21. Friedman's  song, 'A Million Matzoh Balls', has recently been hailed as '...one of the greatest Jewish film moments ever!' in the feature film, 'Lemon', starring Rhea Perlman and Brett Gelman: http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/watch-lemons-a-million-matzoh-balls-sing-along.html?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s3&utm_campaign=sharebutton-t

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