David Foster

At 74 years old, David Foster has this physical status:

Foster was a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark, discovered by Eirik Wangberg. The band's song "Wildflower" was a top ten hit in 1973. When the group disbanded, Foster remained in Los Angeles and, together with Jay Graydon, he formed the band Airplay. In 1975, Foster played on George Harrison's album Extra Texture. He followed that up a year later by playing the Fender Rhodes and clavinet on Harrison's album Thirty Three & 1/3. In 1976, Foster joined Guthrie Thomas on Thomas' second Capitol Records album, Lies and Alibis, with Ringo Starr and a host of other performers. Foster was a major contributor to the 1979 Earth, Wind and Fire album I Am, as a studio player and arranger, and was a co-writer on six of the album's tracks, the most noteworthy being "After the Love Has Gone", for which Foster and his co-writers, Graydon and Bill Champlin, won the 1980 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.

Foster worked as a producer on albums for The Tubes: 1981's The Completion Backward Principle and 1983's Outside Inside. Foster co-wrote such songs as "Talk to Ya Later", with Tubes singer Fee Waybill and Steve Lukather from Toto; the Top 40 hit "Don't Want to Wait Anymore;" and the number 10 US hit "She's a Beauty". The 1980 Boz Scaggs album Middle Man saw Foster co-write and play keyboard on some of Scaggs's most successful songs, including "Breakdown Dead Ahead", "Jojo", and "Simone", followed by "Look What You've Done to Me" from the film Urban Cowboy.

Foster was a major contributor to the career of jazz rock band Chicago in the early and middle 1980s, having worked as the band's producer on Chicago 16 (1982), Chicago 17 (1984 - their biggest selling, multi-platinum album), and Chicago 18 (1986). As was typical of his producing projects from this time period, Foster was a co-writer on songs such as the US Chart No. 1 hit "Hard to Say I'm Sorry", "Love Me Tomorrow" (US No. 22), "Stay the Night" (US No. 16), and "You're the Inspiration" (US No. 3). They were co-written with the band's bassist Peter Cetera. In 1986, Foster also helped Cetera co-write (along with Cetera's wife Diane Nini) his US No. 1 solo hit "Glory of Love".

Foster co-wrote Kenny Loggins's songs "Heart to Heart" (US No. 15), from the 1982 album High Adventure, and "Forever" (US No. 40), from the 1985 album Vox Humana.

Foster worked with country singer Kenny Rogers on the hit albums What About Me? (1984) and The Heart of the Matter (1985), the latter of which featured "The Best of Me", a song co-written with Richard Marx that was covered by Cliff Richard in 1989, resulting in a number-two UK hit.

In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine named Foster the "master of . . . bombastic pop kitsch". That year, Foster composed the score for the film St. Elmo's Fire, including the instrumental "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire", which hit No. 15 on the US pop charts. Another song from the film, "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)", recorded by John Parr, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 7, 1985.

In 1985, Foster also co-wrote and produced "Tears Are Not Enough," which reached top 15 status. The album was recorded by a group of Canadian artists such as Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Bryan Adams, and others, in similar fashion to the UK's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and the US's "We Are the World."

Foster continued turning out occasional film scores, including the Michael J. Fox comedy The Secret of My Success (1987), which featured a song co-written by Foster titled "The Price of Love", a version of which was performed by Roger Daltrey on his album Can't Wait to See the Movie, which Foster also produced. Foster wrote the score for the Jodie Foster-Mark Harmon film Stealing Home (1988). Both films spawned soundtrack albums with prominent Foster-penned contributions.

Foster composed "Winter Games", the instrumental theme song for the 1988 Winter Olympics and performed "Winter Games" and its vocal version "Can't You Feel It?" in Calgary, Alberta. "Winter Games" is also the soundtrack for fountain shows at the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas.

Foster collaborated with then-wife Linda Thompson on the song "I Have Nothing", sung by Whitney Houston in the 1992 film The Bodyguard. The couple also appeared in the film's Oscars scene as the conductor and an Academy member.

In 1995, Foster signed a deal with Warner Brothers that enabled him to set up his own boutique label, 143 Records, as a joint venture with Warner. Foster gave responsibility for running the label to then-manager Brian Avnet. One of the label's first signings was a then-little known Irish folk-rock band, The Corrs, for whom he produced their debut album. By 1997, Foster had come to the realisation that, in the American market at least, "logo labels" like 143 were in a "bad spot" and, as a result, Foster sold the label back to Warner and became a senior vice president at the corporation. Foster, along with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, composed "The Power of the Dream", the official song of the 1996 Summer Olympics. Foster also produced the Diane Warren songs "Un-Break My Heart" sung by Toni Braxton, "Because You Loved Me" sung by Celine Dion, and "Have You Ever?" sung by Brandy.

Foster produced major-label debut albums for Josh Groban (2001), Michael Bublé (2003), Renee Olstead (2004), and Charice (2010), which were released under his 143 Records.

In 2001, Foster collaborated with Lara Fabian and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to record English-language, French-language, and bilingual versions of the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada", for a promotion of the Canadian government. Foster, with his then-wife Linda Thompson, composed "Light the Fire Within", sung by LeAnn Rimes for the 2002 Winter Olympics. In 2003, Foster won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for The Concert for World Children's Day. His song, "I Will Be There With You" (sung with Katharine McPhee), has been used by Japan Airlines to promote the introduction of new aircraft for its US flights.

The 2001 film The Score, starring Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando, features a Diana Krall recording, "I'll Make it Up as I Go". The song, which accompanies the film's ending credits, was composed by Foster together with his daughter Amy Foster-Gilles, and was used in the film.

In 2005, Foster, his daughter Amy Foster-Gillies, and Beyoncé wrote "Stand Up For Love" as the anthem to the World Children's Day, an annual worldwide event to raise awareness and funds for children's causes. Over the years, more than $50 million has been raised to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities and other children's organizations.

In 2008, Foster held a one-night concert called Hitman: David Foster & Friends at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas featuring Foster presiding center stage at the keyboard, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Peter Cetera, Katharine McPhee, Celine Dion, Blake Shelton, Brian McKnight, and Charice.

In 2009, it was revealed by songwriter Diane Warren that she had worked with Foster to produce tracks for Whitney Houston's upcoming album and the singer's comeback single would be the Foster-produced "I Didn't Know My Own Strength".

On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Foster would become the Chairman of Verve Music Group.

In 2013, Foster produced Mary J. Blige's first Christmas album A Mary Christmas released October 15 of that year. The album includes 12 classics such as swing-styled "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". It also features artists Marc Anthony, Jessie J, The Clark Sisters, Barbra Streisand, and Chris Botti. Foster produced Andrea Bocelli's album, Passione, released in January 2013. The album is a collection of Mediterranean love songs featuring duets with Jennifer Lopez, Nelly Furtado, and a virtual duet with Edith Piaf.

Foster also produced an album with Bryan Adams titled Tracks of My Years released in 2014.

Foster left Verve in 2016 in a label reorganization.

As of 2018, Foster was writing a musical about Betty Boop with Susan Birkenhead, along with a musical with Jewel, based on Amy Bloom's novel Lucky Us.

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