Charles Fox (composer)


Charles Ira Fox is an American composer for film and television. His most heard compositions are probably the "love themes" ; the theme song for the late 1970s ABC series The Love Boat; and the dramatic theme music to ABC's Wide World of Sports and the original Monday Night Football; as well as his Grammy-winning hit song "Killing Me Softly With His Song".

Early life

Fox was born in New York City, the son of Mollie and Walter Fox, a Jewish immigrant from Szydlowiec, Poland.
While still a student at the High School of Music & Art, Fox studied jazz piano with Lennie Tristano. He then continued his musical education with Nadia Boulanger, first at Fontainebleau and then privately in Paris. Following his return to the United States, he studied electronic music with Vladimir Ussachevsky at Columbia University. He married Joan Susan Redman on September 9, 1962.

Career

His career started by playing the piano for, composing and arranging for artists such as Ray Barretto, Joe Quijano and Tito Puente. He also wrote theme music and arranged for Skitch Henderson and The Tonight Show Orchestra. Fox worked under the banner of Bob Israel's Score Productions where he composed the themes for several Goodson-Todman game shows including NBC's version of the Match Game, the syndicated versions of What's My Line?, and To Tell The Truth, whose lyrics were written by Goodson-Todman director Paul Alter. He co-composed the theme song and all the original scores for Love, American Style, along with Arnold Margolin.
Fox also composed the music for "Killing Me Softly with His Song," featuring lyrics by Norman Gimbel, in 1972. It became an international #1 hit for Roberta Flack in 1973 and again for The Fugees in 1997. The song won the Grammy for Best Song in 1973. Fox & Gimbel later wrote the themes for many films such as The Last American Hero, Foul Play and many television series, including The Bugaloos, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Angie, The Paper Chase, and Wonder Woman. He also wrote "Together Through The Years" along with fellow composer Stephen Geyer for The Hogan Family series, sung by Roberta Flack.
In 1977, Fox composed "Love Boat", the theme to the popular TV series The Love Boat. It had lyrics by Paul Williams, and was sung by Jack Jones until the ninth and final season when Dionne Warwick was featured. The single released by Jack Jones in 1979 peaked at #37 on the Billboard US Adult Contemporary chart.
In February 1981, Fox peaked at #74 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the song, "Seasons". It was co-written and co-produced by Ed Newmark.
In 2010, Fox published his memoirs, Killing Me Softly: My Life in Music.
"The Charles Fox Singers" was the credited name for the group vocalists who performed his compositions on television and movie themes and cues; they were actually The Ron Hicklin Singers.

Film scores

In total Fox has created film scores for over 100 films including: