David Foster stands among popular music’s most commercially triumphant figures as a composer, arranger, producer, and keyboardist whose sweeping power-ballad style shaped blockbuster recordings by Céline Dion, Chicago, Barbra Streisand, and Whitney Houston while establishing the dominant sound of the adult contemporary format. In the twenty-first century he guided the multi-platinum ascents of crooners Josh Groban and Michael Bublé and served as chairman of the Verve Music Group between 2012 and 2016.
Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Foster began piano lessons at five and entered the University of Washington’s music program eight years afterward. At sixteen he played in Chuck Berry’s touring band; in 1971 he moved to Los Angeles with the group Skylark, which scored a major success the next year via the single “Wildflower.” He also became a highly sought session keyboardist, contributing to albums by John Lennon, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, and Rod Stewart.
Foster launched his production career by helming the 1976 self-titled debut of his own band Attitudes. He soon expanded to outside clients, crafting material for Hall & Oates, Deniece Williams, Carole Bayer Sager, Boz Scaggs, and the Average White Band. His first Grammy arrived in 1979 for co-writing Earth, Wind and Fire’s “After the Love Has Gone.” Thereafter his career accelerated rapidly as he wrote and produced for Kenny Rogers, the Tubes, and Kenny Loggins. In 1982 he earned a second Grammy for producing the original-cast recording of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls and composed and produced Chicago’s chart-topping “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”; the following year he contributed to Lionel Richie’s blockbuster album Can’t Slow Down. Chicago 17, released in 1984, brought Foster his greatest commercial breakthrough yet when the hit “Hard Habit to Break” secured him the Grammy for Producer of the Year.
One year later he wrote and produced John Parr’s “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion),” and in 1986 he reunited with Chicago for the album 18, which yielded “Will You Still Love Me,” while also writing the number-one single “The Glory of Love” for the band’s vocalist Peter Cetera. Although frequently dismissed by critics, Foster’s work dominated the charts with dozens of Top 40 hits. The second half of the 1980s found him comparatively less active, highlighted by his collaboration with Neil Diamond on the 1988 album The Best Years of Our Lives and by assorted film projects and studio sessions. Beginning in 1990 he partnered with Céline Dion, writing and producing tracks for her album Unison and generating the hit “Have a Heart.” The next year he joined Natalie Cole for the blockbuster Unforgettable, earning three additional Grammys for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Producer of the Year.
In 1992 Foster worked with Whitney Houston on the multi-platinum soundtrack to her film The Bodyguard, which earned him another Album of the Year Grammy at the subsequent ceremony; the single “I Will Always Love You” also won Record of the Year. He again received Producer of the Year honors, while his arrangement of “When I Fall in Love,” performed by Céline Dion and Clive Griffin for the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack, brought an additional trophy. For Dion he next produced 1993’s The Colour of My Love, featuring the smash “The Power of Love,” and in 1994 he oversaw All-4-One’s “I Swear.” With Dion’s 1996 release Falling into You he captured yet another Album of the Year Grammy; the accompanying single “Because You Loved Me,” theme song to the film Up Close & Personal, was nominated for Record of the Year, while Toni Braxton’s “Un-Break My Heart” became another major hit that year.
Foster’s achievements continued into the new millennium as he helped launch the multi-platinum careers of Josh Groban and Michael Bublé. He also maintained his own recording output, issuing more than ten albums since the early 1980s, and toured frequently under the banner “Foster and Friends.” One such performance was documented on the 2010 live album The Hit Man Returns, which included guest appearances by Seal, Martina McBride, Donna Summer, and more than ten additional longtime collaborators. During the mid-2010s he served as a judge on Asia’s Got Talent in 2015, 2017, and 2019. His catalog received lavish tribute in 2019 through the PBS concert special An Intimate Evening with David Foster, later issued commercially in 2020 and featuring Fernando Varela, Pia Toscano, and Katharine McPhee, the American Idol alumna who became his wife in 2018.
