Fisher naît Albert von Breitenbach à Cologne. Après avoir visité les États-Unis en 1892, il émigre en 1900 et adopte le nom Fred Fischer. Il crée la Fred Fischer Music Publishing Company en 1907. Durant la Première Guerre mondiale il change son nom de famille pour Fisher pour faire moins allemand[1].
En 1914, Fred Fisher épouse Ana Fisher née Davidovitch, plus tard anglicisé en Davis, née en 1896). Leurs enfants Daniel (« Danny » (1920–2001), Marvin (1916–1993) et Doris Fisher (chanteuse)(en) (1915–2003) composent également des chansons de façon professionnelle[2]. Fisher se suicide par pendaison à Manhattan[3],[4] et est inhumé au cimetière Maimonides à Brooklyn.
If the Man in the Moon Were a Coon, de Fred Fischer, Will Rossiter (1867–1954) (pub) (1905) (OCLC497077685) (son premier succès; il combine deux thèmes de chansons alors populaires, les Moon songs et les Coon songs)
Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) - Biopic romancée comportant de nombreuses chansons de Fisher. Un entrepreneur de Tin Pan Alley (Mark Stevens) fait d'un compositeur sérieux Fred Breitenbach (S.Z. Sakall) l'auteur-compositeur Fred Fisher.
American National Biography. 24 volumes. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
American Popular Songs. From the Revolutionary War to the present. Edited by David Ewen. New York: Random House, 1966
American Songwriters. By David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1987
The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Third edition. New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1966
ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Fourth edition. Compiled for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers by Jaques Cattell Press. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1980
Biographical Dictionary of American Music. By Charles Eugene Claghorn. West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing Co., 1973
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 1: January 1946 - July 1949. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1949
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 6: September 1961 - August 1964. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1965
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 15: September 1986 - August 1988. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1988
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 16: September 1988 - August 1990. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1990
The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz, 1900-1950. Three volumes. By Roger D. Kinkle. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1974. Biographies are located in Volumes 2 and 3
Dictionary of Pseudonyms. Third edition. By Adrian Room. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998
The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Composers and their music. Supplement. By William H. Rehrig. Westerville, OH: Integrity Press, 1996
The New American Dictionary of Music. By Philip D. Morehead with Anne MacNeil. New York: Dutton, 1991
The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Four volumes. Édité par Hugh Wiley Hitchcock et Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Press, 1986
Notable Names in the American Theatre. Clifton, NJ: James T. White & Co., 1976. Earlier edition published as The Biographical Encyclopaedia and Who's Who of the American Theatre
The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. By Peter Gammond. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1991
Popular American Composers. From Revolutionary times to the present. A biographical and critical guide. First edition. Compiled and edited by David Ewen. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1962
Songwriters. A biographical dictionary with discographies. By Nigel Harrison. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1998
Sweet and Lowdown. America's popular song writers. By Warren Craig. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1978. Biographies appear in the 'After Tin Pan Alley' section, beginning on page 91
Tin Pan Alley. An encyclopedia of the golden age of American song. By David A. Jasen. New York: Routledge, 2003
↑Jack Gottlieb, Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: How Yiddish Songs and Synagogue Melodies Influenced Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood, Volume 1, p. 25, SUNY Press (2004) (ISBN0-8444-1130-2), (ISBN9780844411309)
↑Honor Roll of Popular Song Writers: no 13 - Fred Fisher, by Jack Burton, Billboard (magazine), p. 48, 19 mars 1949
↑Songwriters Attend Fred Fisher's Rites: Buck Praises Him for Great Contribution to Music, The New York Times, 17 janvier 1942