Walter Anthony Murphy, Jr. (born December 19, 1952) is a pianist, composer, and arranger who had a massive hit with the instrumental, "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of some passages of the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, in 1976, when disco was at the height of its popularity.
Murphy was born in 1952, in New York City, New York, and grew up in Manhattan. He attended the Manhattan School of Music there, where he studied j...
more
Walter Anthony Murphy, Jr. (born December 19, 1952) is a pianist, composer, and arranger who had a massive hit with the instrumental, "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of some passages of the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, in 1976, when disco was at the height of its popularity.
Murphy was born in 1952, in New York City, New York, and grew up in Manhattan. He attended the Manhattan School of Music there, where he studied jazz and classical piano. After finishing school, Murphy served as an arranger for Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band, before becoming a jingle writer. Murphy was the leader of a band called WAM in the early 1970s that played the NYC tristate area. The band was a poor man's Tower of Power and played R&B; and Soul cover music. They frequently played a club in New Rochelle named Pearly's. Another group which played this local circuit was the Billy Vera band. In the early 1970s, Murphy became interested in adapting classical music into disco...
less
