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10 Facts About Freddie Perren

1.

Frederick James Perren was an American songwriter, record producer, arranger, and orchestra conductor.

2.

Freddie Perren was born on May 15,1943, in Englewood, New Jersey, and graduated from Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School with future songwriting partner Alphonse Mizell in 1961.

3.

Freddie Perren attended Howard University in Washington, DC graduating in 1966.

4.

Freddie Perren met Christine Yarian in 1967, and they married in 1970.

5.

Freddie Perren then moved into the disco arena with the hits "Do It Baby" and "Love Machine" for The Miracles.

6.

The Bee Gees recorded another of their own compositions, "If I Can't Have You", for the film and its soundtrack, but after hearing the Freddie Perren-produced version by Yvonne Elliman, preferred it to their own, which was relegated to a b-side.

7.

The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album sold over 15 million copies and, in 1979, Freddie Perren received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year for his contribution, the first of two back-to-back Grammys he earned.

8.

Freddie Perren last worked with New Edition in 1986 on their Under the Blue Moon, but by the end of the decade he was largely inactive as a writer and producer.

9.

Freddie Perren died 11 years later at the age of 61 in his home in Chatsworth, Los Angeles.

10.

Freddie Perren is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park.