Bossy Frog Band Hops To Success With 8th Album and New Classes

Jeffrey Friedberg of Nyack has been playing music his entire life. After performing in a cruise ship band for three years, he went back to school and got his masters degree in music therapy.

While working alongside children with special needs, Friedberg was regularly singing beloved kids songs. And realizing that youngsters love interactive songs that make them move, Friedberg decided to write some songs of his own.

“I called it the Bossy Frog,” said Friedberg of his first song. “Because I know that kids love frogs, like the princess and the frog, and Kermit. And ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ is kind of a bossy song—the lyrics are telling kids what to do. So I thought, ‘oh, bossy frog.’”

Soon, Friedberg was penning an entire album of children songs—it was released in 1999 with the Bossy Frog track included. Kids loved the song, and started calling Friedberg the Bossy Frog, he said.

“They remembered me by the song,” Friedberg said. “It really stuck.”

And so, The Bossy Frog Band was born.

Nowadays, the band plays over 200 shows a year across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The band has also expanded to five members. In addition to Friedberg—who serves as the lead singer and banjo player—the group also has a costume character frog, a costume character monkey, a bass player and a hula-hooping fiddler. The band performs everywhere from art centers to summer camps, schools, parks and even farmers markets.

In their songs, the band tries to create a marriage between learning and fun that is essential to a child’s development, Friedberg said.

“I think music is really important for kids,” Friedberg said. “It’s really healthy, it helps them with physical development, social, emotional and cognitive development, and speech and language skills. It has all the elements for them to learn new skills but also to practice news skills as they’re growing up.”

By memorizing words to songs, kids learn about different skills and concepts, Friedberg said. Further, it’s important to get the kids moving in the songs because it keeps them physically active.

“So many kids today are looking at screens and not using their bodies,” Friedberg said. “So the songs I write are trying to engage kids to really move in the song.”

The band’s target audience is children from ages two- to eight-years-old. When writing the songs, Friedberg tries to think of where children of these ages are developmentally; the songs aim to help the kids learn motor skills like walking, jumping and expressing themselves by dancing, he said.

Friedberg also knows how important it is for kids of the technology age to practice using their imaginations.

“Whether they pretend their an airplane coming down the tracks or a frog hopping on its lily pad, they’re having to pretend and use their imaginations which is really important for them to learn problem solving skills and creativity,” Friedberg said.

This August, the band will release their eighth album, “15 Songs Every Kid Should Know.”

“I began to think about the traditional songs that have been around forever and that kids continually love,” Friedberg said. “The songs that the first time you hear them, they just love it and want to learn it and sing it.”

Rather than just put on the regular versions of these songs, though, Friedberg wanted to add a twist.

“I wanted to reinterpret them to represent our community,” he explained. “Rockland

 County is so diverse; it has so many different cultures.” So, Friedberg collaborated with over 40 musicians from around Rockland, each of whom brought a little something different.

“15 Songs Every Kid Should Know” has a variety of styles—including a Cha Cha version of Old McDonald, a bluegrass version of Skip to My Lou, a jazz version of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad and a Cajun version of Shoo Fly Don’t Bother Me.

“I wanted kids to learn about different cultures while they’re listening,” Friedberg said.

Friedberg will also be busy this summer planning for Bossy Frog and Me, a new children’s music class starting in September. The class will be Friedberg—along with the costume character Bossy Frog—teaching kids ages two to six about music. The group classes will take a multi-sensory approach, mixing singing, instrument playing and movement.

“I’m trying to create something,” Friedberg said. “There are a lot of great classes out there, but by introducing the character frog we’re really trying to introduce some imagination and fantasy. So that kids have a lot of fun while they’re learning.”

Friedberg says that in the future, he hopes to do exactly what he is doing now: playing music for children is his passion.

“I love being able to see how excited children get about music,” he said. “When children feel the song and sing along whole heartedly and uninhibitedly, I just think it’s wonderful when you can see the love of music.”

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On August 2nd, The Bossy Frog Band is having an album release party. The event is free, and there are open spots left. If you would like to register, visit bossyfrogparty.eventbrite.com. The band is also having many free shows this summer from the Nyack farmer’s market to the Sugarloaf Arts Center to all over the area.