Musical Career
In 1974, Murphy was writing a disco song for a commercial, when the producer gave him the idea of "updating classical music," which "nobody had done lately." He then mailed a demo tape to various record labels in New York. Although response was unimpressive, a rendition of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 In 'C' Minor" generated interest amongst the owner of Private Stock Records, Larry Uttal. Murphy agreed to produce the song under contract and recorded it in 1976, creatively dubbing it "A Fifth of Beethoven". The record was credited to "Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band" upon encouragement from the company, 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; the record was later re-released and credited to "The Walter Murphy Band" before dropping the tradition altogether.
The song was a smash hit, and reached number 80 on the Hot 100 on May 29, 1976, eventually reaching number 1 within nineteen weeks, where it stayed for one week. An album under the same name was released later during the year; the album notably featured a rendition of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" entitled "Flight '76", which reached number 44 on the Hot 100. He released four albums within the following six years, and in 1982, released his final single, a medley of "Themes From E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial)" which climbed to 47 on the Hot 100.
Murphy, back to jingle writing, has written music for numerous cartoons and TV shows, including Channel Umptee-3, Family Guy, its recent offshoot album, Family Guy: Live in Vegas, the main title music for The Cleveland Show and the main title music for American Dad!. The song "You've Got A Lot To See", composed for the Family Guy episode "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows" won the award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics at the 2002 Emmy Awards. Murphy described the orchestral score for Family Guy as "a combination of ." He scored MacFarlane's film, Ted (2012).
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