Walter Murphy

Walter Anthony Murphy Jr. (born December 19, 1952) is an American composer, keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer.

Murphy was born on December 19, 1952, in New York City, and grew up in Manhattan.

At age four, he attended music lessons hosted by Rosa Rio, studying an array of instruments, including the organ and piano.

Rio frequently opted for him to star in television advertisements for the Hammond organ.

In high school, Murphy composed for his band class and orchestra.

Against the wishes of his father, who was a real estate agent and wished to pass the business down to his son, Murphy enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music under a composition major in 1970.

recalling his experiences with his father, Murphy stated "He wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer — or something you can depend on."

There, Murphy studied jazz and classical piano with Nicolas Flagello and Ludmila Ulehla.

His postgraduate studies at the Manhattan School yielded the composition "Chorale and Allegro for Orchestra", which has been performed by orchestras throughout the United States.

From 1970 to 1980, Murphy worked as a Manhattan Avenue jingle writer, writing for such clients as Lady Arrow shirts, Revlon, Woolworth's, Viasa Airlines, and Korvette's, as well as arrangements for the popular children's television series Big Blue Marble.

In the early 1970s, Murphy was the leader of the soul/R&B cover band WAM.

They gigged in the New York tri-state area, often at the New Rochelle club Pearly's.

During an appointment with Bobby Rosengarden, bandleader of the Dick Cavett Show orchestra, Murphy convinced the group to play some of his arrangements when he found Rosengarden to be absent.

Looking back on the situation, he stated "I still can't believe I did it. I'm not a very forward person."

Since the band "wasn't very busy," they performed his arrangements live and enjoyed them, convincing Murphy to write more.

In April 1972, a fellow student from the Manhattan School of Music introduced Murphy to Doc Severinsen, musical director of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Murphy presented his arrangements to Severinsen, who liked them enough to have The Tonight Show Band play them live.

However, The Tonight Show moved production to Burbank, California a month later, and a final year of college prevented Murphy from joining them.

In 1974, Murphy joined Thomas J. Valentino's company Valentino, Inc., composing much of their library music for film and television over the years.

He is best known for the instrumental "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which topped the charts in 1976 and was featured on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1977.

Further classical-disco fusions followed, such as "Flight '76", "Toccata and Funk in 'D' Minor" "Bolero", and "Mostly Mozart", but were not as successful.

In a career spanning over five decades, Murphy has written music for numerous films and TV shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Savage Bees, Stingray, Wiseguy, The Commish, Profit, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Looney Tunes, and How Murray Saved Christmas.

He has had a long-running partnership with Seth MacFarlane, composing music for his films and TV shows such as Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, Ted, Ted 2 and the Ted (TV Series).

In 1976, Murphy played piano on Peter Lemongello's second album Do I Love You.

In college, Murphy's interests had included rock music, particularly that which was adapted from classical music, such as "Joy" by Apollo 100 and "A Lover's Concerto" by The Toys.

Later, in 1976, he was writing a disco song for a commercial, when a producer gave him the idea of "updating classical music," which "nobody had done lately."

He then recorded a demo tape of four songs: three were ordinary pop songs, while the fourth was a disco rendition of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony titled "A Fifth of Beethoven" —and mailed it to various record labels in New York City.

Response was generally unimpressive, but "Fifth" caught the interest of Private Stock Records owner Larry Uttal.

Murphy signed on to Private Stock and recorded the album A Fifth of Beethoven.

The first single and title track, "A Fifth of Beethoven", was released on May 29, 1976.

It was a hit, starting out at number 80 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually reaching number 1 within 19 weeks, where it stayed for one week.

The single sold two million copies, while the album sold about 750,000 copies.

The second single, a rendition of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" titled "Flight '76", was less successful, reaching only number 44 on the Hot 100 and number 35 in Canada.

The single was initially credited to "Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band" upon encouragement from Private Stock, who believed it would become a hit if credited to a group rather than an individual.

However, two days following the record's release, Private Stock discovered the existence of another Big Apple Band (which promptly changed its name to Chic).

As result, the record was later re-released and credited to "The Walter Murphy Band", then just "Walter Murphy".

Following the success of "A Fifth of Beethoven", Murphy toured with his band and made guest appearances on shows such as Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, The Midnight Special, Dinah!, and American Bandstand.

On the success of the single, he said: "It's really sad that the kids today can only relate to Beethoven via a rock version of his music."

He hoped "that maybe if they've heard this much of his symphony, they'll go out and buy the original."

In 1977, "A Fifth of Beethoven" was licensed to RSO Records for inclusion on the soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever, giving the song a new lease on life.