Songwriter David Foster to Receive Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Songwriter-producer David Foster, who has won 16 Grammy Awards and created albums that have sold hundreds of millions of copies, will receive the 2,499th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Friday.

Singer Natalie Cole and talk show host Phil McGraw will join Foster in speaking at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony in front of the building housing Capitol Records, the label that signed his pop band Skylark in 1971.

"One hundred years from now, my great-grandchildren will go, `Hey, there's my great-grandpa' and having a star next to the Beatles, outside the building where I first got signed, that's perfect,'' Foster said.

Foster has created hit songs and award-winning gold and platinum albums for such artists as Earth, Wind & Fire, Cole, Michael Bolton, Seal, Chaka Khan, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Chicago, Hall & Oates, Brandy, 'N Sync, Boz Scaggs and Gloria Estefan.

Foster has also worked with Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Stevie Wonder. He is credited with playing key roles in the discovery and career launches of Celine Dion, Josh Groban and Michael Buble.

"I operate under the guiding principle that if I love something, millions of others will love it too,'' said Foster, who was born Nov. 1, 1949, in Victoria, British Columbia, and began studying piano when he was 4 years old.

Foster has had particular success in creation of Christmas music, including Groban's "Noel''; Buble's "Christmas''; Rod Stewart's "Merry Christmas Baby''; and Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas.''

Foster's 16 Grammys include three for producer of the year, in 1984, 1991 and 1993. He received a Primetime Emmy Award in 2002 for  outstanding music and lyrics for the song "Aren't They All Our Children'' for "The Concert for World Children's Day,'' which aired on ABC.

Foster has been nominated for best original song Oscars for "The Karate Kid, Part II'' in 1986, "The Bodyguard'' in 1993 and "Quest for Camelot'' in 1998.

Foster was appointed chairman of Universal's Verve Music Group in 2012. He has said his goal is to turn the fabled jazz label into the premier label for singing legends and legends in the making. Its roster includes such established stars as Bocelli, Cole, Diana Krall, Sarah McLachlan and Smokey Robinson along with the Malaysian singer Yuna and the Swedish YouTube sensations Dirty Loops, a trio who blend jazz, rock, pop and dance music.

Foster said that early in his career, producer Quincy Jones told him "If something isn't exactly the way you think it should be, don't put your name on it.''

"His words of advice had a great impact on me and since then I've always fought for my artistic vision,'' Foster said. ``I don't always win, but when an artist hires me, it's my job to push them toward greatness and to get something out of them they didn't know was there.

"My personal motto has become, `Compromise breeds mediocrity.'''

- City News Service