Dean Friedman

Born in 1955 in Paramus, New Jersey, Dean Friedman belongs to an American singer-songwriter tradition that blends melodic pop, soft rock and folk, with storytelling lyrics often focused on everyday details. He began musical training as a teenager and later studied at the City College of New York. Friedman launched his recording career in the mid-1970s and released the album Dean Friedman in 1977, propelled by the song "Ariel," which remains his most recognized track in the United States. His second album, Well, Well Said the Rocking Chair (1978), also marked his trajectory, featuring "Lucky Stars," a duet with Denise Marsa, while his repertoire mixes piano ballads, acoustic pop songs and understated humor, as on "McDonald’s Girl" (1982). Over the decades he has maintained a steady path of writing, recording and performing, with albums such as Songs for Grownups (1998), The Treehouse Journals (2002), Submarine Races (2010), 12 Songs (2017) and American Lullaby (2021). Friedman has also worked for television and film—composing for Boon, Eerie, Indiana and I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle—and remains a frequent presence on the circuit of smaller venues in the US and the UK.