Frederick (song)

Last updated
"Frederick"
Frederick - Patti Smith Group.jpg
Single by Patti Smith Group
from the album Wave
B-side "Frederick" (Live)
ReleasedMay 1979
Recorded Bearsville Studios
Genre New wave [1]
Length3:01
Label Arista
Songwriter Patti Smith
Producer Todd Rundgren
Patti Smith singles chronology
"Privilege
(Set Me Free)"
(1978)		"Frederick"
(1979)		"Dancing Barefoot"
(1979)
"Frederick"
Frederick single.jpg
Single by Sandie Shaw
B-side "Go Johnny Go"
Released1986 (1986)
Genre Pop
Label Polydor
Songwriter Patti Smith
Producers Clive Langer,
Alan Winstanley
Sandie Shaw singles chronology
"Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken"
(1986)		"Frederick"
(1986)		"Please Help the Cause Against Loneliness"
(1988)

"Frederick" is a song written by Patti Smith, and released as the lead single from Patti Smith Group's 1979 album Wave . The song is dedicated to Fred "Sonic" Smith, guitar player of the Detroit band MC5 and Smith's future husband.

Contents

The melody of "Frederick" is an homage to Bruce Springsteen's live arrangement of "Prove It All Night" from the then-recent Darkness Tour of 1978.

Reception

Smash Hits said, "Patti has been getting a lot of stick from her original admirers for 'selling out' and going pop. I think they're being short-sighted (not to mention cloth-eared). This is an excellent sample of her new work with producer Todd Rundgren." [2]

Covers

The song was covered by Sandie Shaw in 1986. The B-side was entitled "Go Johnny Go", and had been written by Shaw as a tribute to Johnny Marr.

Charts

Patti Smith Group

Chart (1979) [3] [4] Position
Billboard Hot 100 90
Italy14 [5]
UK Singles Chart 63

References

  1. ↑ Matt McKinzie (November 14, 2019). "Patti Smith's 'Wave' Turns 40: Why the Punk Poet's Pop Album Is Also Her Greatest". PopMatters .
  2. ↑ Cliff White (17 May 1979). "Singles". Smash Hits. No. 12.
  3. ↑ "Billboard chart". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-03-04.
  4. ↑ "UK chart" . Retrieved 2008-03-04.
  5. ↑ "Hit Parade Italia - Top Annuali Single:1979". Hitparadeitalia. Retrieved 5 April 2022.



This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.