George Freedman — George Freedman 1967 (Brazil, Pop/Jovem Guarda)

Jörg Detlef Friedemann was born in Berlin, on 7 August 1940. He was lucky enough to have been brought to Brazil as an infant in the midst of WWII before the Allies would start dropping bomb on Berlin. Jörg’s dad was a Berlin native and his mother Marion Isabel from Dusseldorf. The Friedemann family got out of Germany in the nick of time fleeing to South America where Jörg had the chance to grow up in peaceful surroundings in São Paulo. He was 17 years old in 1957, when rock’n’roll started giving signs of life in Brazil. Jörg who was very fond of the new rhythm anglicized his name to George Freedman and started rockin’ at dances and radio shows. He had already written a song to Marilene, a high school crush of his, and recorded it in 1959, as ‘Leninha’ a 78 rpm single for California, a tiny independant label. In 1960, George was signed by German label Polydor that released 3 singles in a row. Teddy Randazzo’s ‘Pretty blue eyes’ was translated by Fred Jorge as ‘Olhos cor do céu’ and had good air-play. In 1961, George was signed by Continental Discos and recorded ‘Adivinhão’ (a sort of ‘Long tall Sally’ Brazilian style) b/w ‘Inveja’ (a rock-ballad), two tunes by Baby Santiago, a Black song-writer who was the first Brazilian ever to write original rock material in Portuguese. 1962, was George’s best year so far. He became popular with teenagers who flocked to see their idols perform ‘live’ every Saturday afternoon at radio show ‘Ritmos para a Juventude’ compered by DJ Antonio Aguilar for Radio Nacional Paulista. RGE snatched George from Continental and released the album ‘Multiplication’ that had been a hit with Bobby Darin from the film ‘Come September’ which Darin had starred with future wife Sandra Dee, Gina Lollobrigida and Rock Hudson. 1963 and 1964 were hectic years for a lot of people, but George sort of kept a low profile. In 1965 and 1966, Jovem Guarda was all the rage but George was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, in 1967, George was back with a vengeance. He was signed by RCA Victor that released a cover of ‘Something stupid’ a Nancy & Frank Sinatra duet. George actually sang the duet with himself having his own voice dubbed over itself. ‘Coisinha estúpida’ went straight to #1 in the charts and made George Freedman very successful. RCA soon released an album called ‘George Freedman’.