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Fred Schneider
At the "LoveBox" festival in London, July 22nd 2007
Background information
Birth name	Fred Schneider III
Born	July 1, 1951 (1951-07-01) (age 58)
Origin	Newark, New Jersey
Genres	New Wave, Pop rock, Rock
Occupations	Musician, Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, Keyboards, Piano, Cowbell
Years active	1976–present
Associated acts	The B-52's The Superions

Fred Schneider III (born July 1, 1951 in Newark, New Jersey) is best known as the frontman of the rock band The B-52's, of which he is a founding member. Schneider is well-known for his sprechgesang which he developed from reciting poetry over guitars^[1].

Early life

Fred Schneider did not grow up wanting to be a musician. In an interview with Surviving the Golden Age, Fred stated that his musical influences included "Halloween songs and nutty Christmas songs" along with "Motown"^[2]. In college, Schneider wrote a book of poetry for his final project^[3]. After college he held down jobs as a janitor as well as a meals-on-wheels driver^[4].

Other music ventures

Aside from duties as the frontman, cowbell player, toy pianist (on "Dance This Mess Around") and glockenspieler (on "Give Me Back My Man") of the The B-52's, Fred Schneider released two solo albums. He is currently working on a new side project called The Superions. "Totally Nude Island", the debut single by The Superions, was released to iTunes Stores internationally as a digital download on October 31, 2008. A remix by Ursula 1000 was also released as a digital single on December 18, 2008. The group is working on their debut full length album as well as a Halloween and Christmas album ^[5].

• Fred Schneider & the Shake Society (1984 and 1991)
• Just Fred (1996), which was produced by Steve Albini.

Collaborations

• He sang with Sleater-Kinney in a Hedwig and the Angry Inch tribute cover of "Angry Inch" on the album Wig in a Box.
• He sang with Richard Barone on Barone’s 1990 album, Primal Dream (MCA). Richard also co-wrote two songs and arranged on Just Fred, and produced Fred's version of Harry Nilsson's "Coconut", released as single from the Nilsson tribute album For the Love of Harry.
• He was a guest vocalist on the song National Anthem of Love, on Joe McIntyre’s album Meet Joe Mac.
• He worked with Sophie Ellis-Bextor on some songs for her album Trip the Light Fantastic. A song which he worked on and provided vocals for called "Supersonic" appeared on he UK and Australian version of her album.
• He was a guest vocalist on the song "The Power of Pussy", on Bongwater's 1990 album of the same name.
• He provided the vocals for the Foo Fighters cover of "Planet Claire".
• He worked with Captain Planet on the "Eco Rap," an updated theme song used for The New Adventures of Captain Planet.
• Fred Schneider is featured on "Stinky Dinky", Track 9 of RuPaul’s 1993 debut album, Supermodel of the World.

Filmography

Films in which Fred Schneider has appeared include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Trekkies 2 (2004)
• Each Time I Kill (2002)
• Godass (2000)
• Desert Blue (1998, voice only)
• The Rugrats Movie (1998, voice only)
• The Flintstones (1994)
• Hangfire (1991)
• A Matter of Degrees (1990)
• Funny (1989)
• Athens, GA: Inside/Out (1987)
• One Trick Pony (1980)
• Jack Off In the Box (1980)
• I am the werewolf (1988)
• He is credited in the Nickelodeon cartoon Rocko's Modern Life for the theme song vocals.
• He was a guest on an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
• He guest starred on an episode of Lil' Bush in 2008.
• He appeared on an episode of The Daily Show on June 2, 2008.

Radio

• Until late 2008 Schneider hosted a show called Party Out Of Bounds that airs Friday nights, 9pm to 12am (ET) on Sirius 22 First Wave. On the show, Schneider played a mix of new wave-era dance, remixes and rarities, interspersed with Schneider’s own humorous bits and anecdotes.

Bibliography

• In 1975/1976, Fred Schneider personally hand-wrote approximately 100 copies of a short book of his poems entitled Bleb.
• In 1987, Fred Schneider wrote a paperback book of mostly poetry entitled Fred Schneider and Other Unrelated Works, which was published by Arbor House, New York. The book is approximately 96 pages and out of print. It was illustrated by Kenny Scharf, who also did the cover art for The B-52's 1986 album Bouncing Off the Satellites. Approximately 6000 copies were printed.

References

External links

• Fred Schneider on MySpace
• The Superions on MySpace