1970–1976: Early years

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.^[3][7][6]

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,^[8] 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.^[9] Looking back on the situation, he stated "I still can't believe I did it. I'm not a very forward person."^[9] Since the band "wasn't very busy," they performed his arrangements live and enjoyed them, convincing Murphy to write more.^[9]

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.^[9]

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

In 1976, Murphy played piano on Peter Lemongello's second album Do I Love You.^[3]

1976–1979: Private Stock years, breakthrough

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."^[9] 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"^[10]—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^[11] and number 35 in Canada.^[12]

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".^[11]

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."^[3]

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.^[11] Also that year, Murphy recorded the album Rhapsody in Blue, which contained a similar mix of classical-disco fusion and self-penned pop songs. Two singles were released: a disco treatment of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", and the self-penned instrumental "Uptown Serenade." The former narrowly missed the top 100, but received significant play on easy-listening stations, according to Billboard.

In 1978, Murphy recorded the album Phantom of the Opera, a concept album telling the story of The Phantom of the Opera, featuring Gene Pistilli as Erik/The Phantom, B.G. Gibson as Raoul, and Renée Geyer as Christine. The album spawned three singles: "Dance Your Face Off"/"Gentle Explosion" (a double A-side), "Toccata and Funk in 'D' Minor", and "The Music Will Not End". These singles failed to make the Hot 100, club, or radio charts.^[13]

1979–1982: RCA and MCA years, Uncle Louie

Murphy signed on to RCA in 1979, and released the album Walter Murphy's Discosymphony. The album spawned the singles "Bolero" and "Mostly Mozart"; the latter failed to chart, indicating that Murphy had taken the "classical disco" concept as far as it could go.

Also in 1979, Murphy and Gene Pistilli joined with brothers Eddie and Frank Dillard, forming the band Uncle Louie. They signed on to TK Records and released one album, Uncle Louie's Here, which explored a more aggressive, funk-based angle than Murphy's solo albums. The album spawned three singles: "Full-Tilt Boogie", which reached number 19 on the Billboard R&B chart, "I Like Funky Music", and "Sky High".

Around this time, Murphy and Pistilli wrote and/or produced songs for other artists, including "Something to Hold Onto" (1981) by Harry Belafonte and "What's Wrong With This Picture?" (1980) by Lora Lee Cliff. Murphy also contributed arrangements to Jack Jones's Nobody Does It Better (1979) and Pia Zadora's Rock It Out (1984).

In 1982, Murphy signed on to MCA Records and recorded Themes from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and More. The album contained disco- and pop-tinged arrangements of themes to popular movies of the time, such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, and Poltergeist. The album spawned one single, a medley of "Themes from ET (The Extra-Terrestrial)", which climbed to number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1982–1999: Move to behind-the-scenes roles

Following Themes from E.T., Murphy largely ceased touring and recording studio albums of original material. He instead began focusing more exclusively on composing for film and television, and producing for other artists, in a more behind-the-scenes role.

Artists that Murphy has recorded and/or produced for include Dolly Parton, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Warnes, Siedah Garrett, Tim Schmitt, Richie Havens, Isaac Hayes, Taj Mahal, Paul Williams, and Kenny Rankin. He was also a guest conductor for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, during their successful Summer Pops series.^[5]

In 1984, Murphy and television composer Mike Post co-produced Alabama's "Rock on the Bayou", the B-side to the band's hit single "(There's A) Fire in the Night". "Rock on the Bayou" was featured in the independent film The River Rat, which Post also composed the music for.

In 1985, Murphy collaborated with Post, Rick James, and Issac Hayes on scoring music for The A-Team episode "The Heart of Rock 'N Roll".^[14]

1999-present: Collaborations with Seth MacFarlane

Since 1999, Murphy has served as one of the two main composers for the animated series Family Guy, the other being Ron Jones until the 12th season in 2014. He has described his scores for Family Guy as "a combination of [big-band swing and action-orchestral]."^[15] The song "You've Got a Lot to See", composed for the episode "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows", won the award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics at the 2002 Emmy Awards.^[16] In 2005, Murphy scored music for the offshoot album Family Guy: Live in Vegas.^[17]

Since 2005, Murphy is one of the composers for MacFarlane's American Dad!, the other two being Joel McNeely and Ron Jones, as well as composing the series' theme song "Good Morning USA".^[15]

From 2009 to 2013, Murphy composed music for MacFarlane's series The Cleveland Show, including the main title theme.^[15]

In 2012, Murphy scored MacFarlane's film Ted, and received an Academy Award for Best Original Song nomination for co-writing "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" with MacFarlane.

Murphy is also a longtime collaborator with jazz guitarist Thom Rotella, who had played on Murphy's albums A Fifth of Beethoven and Phantom of the Opera and currently performs with his Family Guy orchestra.^[18] In 1989, Murphy arranged the song "The Gift" on Rotella's album Home Again. In 2014, Murphy and Rotella wrote and recorded a four-track big band project, inspired by the Wes Montgomery and Verve-era Oliver Nelson records of the 1960s that the two of them had grown up on. The project was recorded in Capitol Studio A with engineer Al Schmitt, and performed by renown Los Angeles session musicians.^[19]

Guest appearances

• Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (1976)
• The Midnight Special (1976–77)
• American Bandstand (1976)
• The Mike Douglas Show (1976–77; 1979)
• The Merv Griffin Show (1976–77)
• Dinah! (1976–77)
• Dick Clark's Live Wednesday (1978)
• 21st Annual Grammy Awards (1979)
• Score! The Music of 'Family Guy' (2005)
• Family Guy: Creating the Chaos (2009)
• Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show (2009)
• 85th Academy Awards (2013)

Composer/arranger

Orchestrator

• Teacher's Pet (2004)
• Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004)

Albums

Singles