Friedrich Hollaender

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Friedrich Hollaender, in exile also Frederick Hollander, was a German film composer and writer. He was born on 18 October 1896 in London, into a Jewish family. His father, the operetta composer Victor Hollaender, was musical director of the Barnum & Bailey circus there. In 1899 the family returned to Berlin. Hollaender studied at the Stern Conservatory in the master class of Engelbert Humperdinck and in the evenings played piano for silent films, which taught him to improvise. He died on 18 January 1976.

Music and breakthrough

After his studies he wrote music for productions by Max Reinhardt and became a fixture of the Berlin cabaret world, together with Kurt Tucholsky, Klabund, Walter Mehring and Mischa Spoliansky. In 1931 he founded the cabaret Tingel-Tangel-Theater. His breakthrough came with the film music for Der Blaue Engel in 1930, with the song Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt, known in English as Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It), sung by Marlene Dietrich.

Influence

Because of his Jewish background he had to leave Germany in 1933. He went first to Paris and in 1934 emigrated to the United States. There he wrote music for more than a hundred films, including Destry Rides Again, A Foreign Affair, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. and Sabrina, and received four Oscar nominations. Many of his songs became famous anew through Marlene Dietrich. In A Foreign Affair he can be seen himself as a pianist. Hollaender links the Berlin cabaret of the 1920s to the Hollywood film.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2010The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (soundtrack)
• 2013Sabrina / We're No Angels (soundtrack)
• 2017Vienne – Paris – Hollywood

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 1^NL Reader
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 2^NL Reader