TABITHA BOOKS
Who is David Foster?
BY-------Graham Sclater
David Walter Foster was born November 1, 1949 and is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger,
record producer and music executive. He has been nominated with 47 nominations and has won
16 Grammy Awards. He has been immersed in the music industry for five decades and his success
is incredible.
At the age of 13 Foster in 1963 enrolled in the University of Washington music programme and in
1965 he auditioned to lead the band in an Edmonton nightclub owned by jazz musician Tommy
Banks. Foster was fortunate to have been mentored by Banks in so many aspects of the music
business including jazz and record production. In 1966 he moved to Toronto and played where he
briefly played in a backing band for Chuck Berry.
In the early 70’s he moved to Los Angeles where he joined the Skylark as keyboard player. The
band was discovered by Eirik Wangberg and their self-penned song Wildflower was a top ten hit in
1973. When the group split, he remained in Los Angeles and his career took off. Within two years
he was to record with George Harrison and Ringo Starr which led to him arranging, playing, and
co-writing hits for Earth Wind and Fire.
In a recent interview Foster said he always worked with a co-writer or writers to work with him on new material. He was the co-writer on six of their album tracks, the most noteworthy being After the Love Has Gone, co-written with Graydon and Bill Champlin and went on to win the 1980 Grammy Award for the Best R & B song. From then his work as either a co-writer, arranger and producer gave him the opportunity to work with The Tubes, Boz Scaggs, Chicago, Peter Cetera’s solo work, Kenny Rogers, Kenny Loggins, Bryan Adams, Joney Mitchell, Neil Young, Roger Daltry, Whitney Houston, Rod Stewart and a who’s who in the music business.
In 1985 Foster composed the score of the film St Elmo’s Fire and the instrumental Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire gave him his first solo penned hit reaching the top 15 in the US pop charts. He also co-wrote the hit from the film by John Parr which was a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1985 and in many other countries. The track, considered a classic, is frequently heard on radio.
Foster composed "Winter Games", the theme song for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Canada which was also the name of the soundtrack for fountain shows at the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas.
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. 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. In 1997 Foster sold the label back to Warner but continued as senior vice president of the label.
In the millennium his production work continued with hits for Toni Braxton, Celine Dion and Brandy Foster and then produced the major-al bum debuts for Josh Groban, Michael Bublé and Charice. His collaborations as a songwriter continued and he composed hists for LeAnn Rimes and Katharine McPhee and the film scores featuring a song recorded and sung by Diana Krall.
Foster has appeared on several music reality shows including American Idol, a guest judge on Nashville Star, Celebrity Duets, and Star Tomorrow.
Foster created the David Foster Foundation, which supports children in need of medical transplants. Foster is also an ardent supporter of Israel, raising money for their military at fundraisers as recently as 2018.
He has been instrumental in recording a huge number of best-selling Christmas albums including Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton, Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé, Mary J. Blige and many more.
In the Juno Awards 2019, David Foster was honoured for his charitable work as a result of his own foundation supplying money to charities and Canadian families in need of life saving transplants.
As this article is written Foster is currently working on three major musical scores