Walter Murphy

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Walter Murphy (born December 19, 1952 ) is an American pianist , composer and arranger . He had his greatest record success in 1976 with a disco adaptation of Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th Symphony . In addition, he is best known today for the theme song and soundtrack of the American series Family Guy .

Life

Murphy was born in 1952 and grew up in Manhattan , where he later studied jazz and classical piano. At first he mainly composed advertising melodies before he began to adapt classical compositions in the then contemporary disco versions in the 1970s. After no record label showed interest, the owner of Private Stock Records gave him the chance to publish his latest work, an adaptation of Beethoven's 5th Symphony .

In May 1976, A Fifth Of Beethoven entered the US charts, where it lasted for 19 weeks, one of them at number 1 . In Germany , the title was best known for its publication on the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever . In the same year he worked as a film composer for the first time and composed the music for the television horror film Killerbees attack . At the end of the 1980s and especially in the 1990s, he was primarily active as a composer for various television series.

This piece was u. a. also used in the films Bowfinger's Big Number (1999), The Women of Stepford (2004) and the spy film parody Austin Powers in Gold Stand (2002).

Walter Murphy had a few more hits after that, but then withdrew again into composing advertising melodies and soundtracks . Today he is best known through his longstanding collaboration with Seth MacFarlane , with whom he designed the three theme songs and (alternately with other composers such as Ron Jones and Joel McNeely ) also the underscore for the animated series Family Guy , American Dad and The Cleveland Show . He also wrote the soundtrack for MacFarlane's feature film productions Ted and Ted 2 . The two artists also collaborated on the big band CD “Family Guy: Live in Las Vegas”, which was released in 2005.

Discography

Studio albums

  • 1976: A Fifth of Beethoven (with The Big Apple Band)
  • 1977: Rhapsody in Blue
  • 1978: Phantom of the Opera
  • 1979: Discosymphony
  • 1979: Uncle Louie's Here
  • 1982: Themes from ET the Extra-Terrestrial and More
  • 1996: The Best of

Singles (chart successes)

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1976 A Fifth Of Beethoven
A Fifth Of Beethoven 		DE37 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT15 (12 weeks)
AT 		CH8 (10 weeks)
CH 		UK28 (9 weeks)
UK 		US1 (28 weeks)
US
First published: May 1976
with The Big Apple Band
Flight '76
A Fifth Of Beethoven 		- - - - US44 (10 weeks)
US
First published: October 1976
1982 Themes from ET (the Extra-Terrestrial)
Themes from ET the Extra-Terrestrial and More 		- - - - US47 (9 weeks)
US
First published: July 1982

Filmography (selection)

  • 1976: Killer bees attack (The Savage Bees)
  • 1982: The Hunter of Deadly Jade (Raw Force)
  • 1988: Tricks of the Trade
  • 1989: The Lady Forgets
  • 1991–1996: The Police Chief ( The Commish , TV series)
  • 1997: Buffy - The Vampire Slayer ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer , TV series)
  • since 2000: Family Guy (TV series)
  • 2000: Changing Hearts
  • 2006–2008: American Dad (TV series, 5 episodes)
  • 2012: Ted
  • 2015: Ted 2

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
personal data
SURNAME Murphy, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pianist, composer and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1952