Walter Murphy
Walter Murphy ( born December 19, 1952) is an American pianist, composer and arranger. He had his greatest success in 1976 with a disco adaptation of the 5th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Life
Born in 1952, Murphy grew up in Manhattan, where he later studied jazz and classical piano. First, he composed predominantly jingles before he started in the 1970s to adapt classical compositions in then contemporary disco versions. Having no record label had shown interest, gave him the owner of Private Stock Records a chance, his latest work, an adaptation of Beethoven's 5th Symphony to publish.
In May 1976 A Fifth Of Beethoven rose in the U.S. charts, where it was able to keep 19 weeks, one of them at No. 1 in Germany the title primarily by the publication on the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever was released. In the same year he was first active as a film composer and has composed the music for the television horror movie killer bees attacking. In the late 1980s and especially in the 1990s, he worked primarily for various television series as a composer.
This piece was also described in the films Bowfinger (1999), The Stepford Wives (2004) and used in the spy movie spoof Austin Powers in Goldmember ( 2002).
Walter Murphy then had a few hits, then pulled back but in the composition of jingles and soundtracks. For the music of a Family Guy episode, he won an Emmy in 2002.