The band, formed in March 1962 in West Didsbury, Manchester, consisted of vocalist Freddie Garrity (1936–2006), guitarist Roy Crewdson (born 1941), guitarist/harmonica player Derek Quinn (1942–2020), bassist Peter Birrell, and drummer Bernie Dwyer (1940–2002).

[1] Prior to becoming a singer, Garrity had worked as a milkman in Manchester and bassist Birrell was a shoe salesman.

[citation needed] On stage, the group performed rehearsed, synchronised wacky dance routines.

They appeared in four British films: What a Crazy World with Joe Brown, Just for You, Cuckoo Patrol with Kenneth Connor and Victor Maddern and Every Day's A Holiday (US title Seaside Swingers) with Mike Sarne, Ron Moody and John Leyton.

In the 1980 Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, Lester Bangs wrote of the group: Freddie and the Dreamers [had] no masterpiece but a plenitude of talentless idiocy and enough persistence to get four albums and one film soundtrack released ... the Dreamers looked as thuggish as Freddie looked dippy ... Freddie and the Dreamers represented a triumph of rock as cretinous swill, and as such should be not only respected, but given their place in history.