Dave Frishberg (born 23 March 1933) is an American jazz pianist, vocalist and composer born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. 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 teen-ager he played in the house band at the Flame in St. Paul where Art Tatum, Billie Holiday and Johnny Hodges appeared. After he graduated from the University of Minnesota as a journalism major in 1955, Frishberg spent two years in the Air Force, then moved to New York where he played solo piano at the Duplex in Greenwich Village. Frishberg 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" (co-written with Bob Dorough), "My Attorney Bernie," "Do You Miss New York," "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.
Many of his songs have been performed by artists such as Blossom Dearie, Rosemary Clooney, Anita O'Day, Michael Feinstein, 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" available with MTI. 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. Frishberg presently resides in Portland, Oregon.
