Jesse Frederick
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Jesse Frederick | |
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Born | Jesse Frederick James Conaway June 25, 1948 Salisbury, Maryland, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, singer, songwriter |
Years active | 1970s–present |
Musical career | |
Genres | |
Instrument(s) |
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Jesse Frederick James Conaway (born June 25, 1948) is an American
Early years
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (June 2021) |
Jesse Frederick James Conaway was born in Salisbury, Maryland, but was raised in Seaford, Delaware. He was the younger of two children. His brother, Everett Thomas “Tommy” Conaway, Jr. (1944–1956), died of cystic fibrosis at age 12 years. In his early childhood, Jesse was familiarly known as "Freddy" before he started using the middle name Frederick in his later teens. This was done in an attempt to distinguish himself from the legacy of his father, Everett T. "Conny" Conaway, Sr. (1915–2010). Conny was a prominent figure in the poultry processing industry. During his 70-year career, the senior Conaway designed and built some of the earliest processing plants for Allen Family Foods, Frank Perdue and Preston Townsend, all of which are still operating today. In early adolescence, Frederick attended Massanutten Military Academy for two years. Once he entered high school, his father put him to work, hoping to groom a protege in the industry. Frederick learned about the processing of poultry first hand as a plant laborer at many of his father's factories on the East Coast.
In high school, Frederick starred in many school plays and although his primary musical instrument was classical trumpet, he demonstrated mastery of a variety of musical instruments. He graduated Seaford High School in 1966, before attending Shenandoah College and Conservatory Of Music. Under his father's tutelage, he studied mechanical drafting, and eventually worked as his apprentice in plant overhead conveyor layout designs, but continued writing and composing his own work.
Career
Late 1960s to mid 1970s: music career and Bearsville Records and early EPs
Although he released some early single records in the Philadelphia area in his late teens, and recorded demos for Columbia Records while in college, it was in 1971, at the age of 23, Jesse was signed to Albert Grossman's Bearsville Records.
His self-titled debut album, recorded in Nashville and mixed in part by Todd Rundgren, was released in that year. Although the album gained Frederick a lot of respect from his peers, its sales success was limited. In 1973, Bearsville released a promo 45 featuring both stereo and mono versions of the first single from Frederick's second album, After the Rain, which would never be released. The single was entitled "I Belong to You". As the 1970s progressed, Frederick would sign with another label, spawning a third album in the process; as in the last project at Bearsville, it never saw the light of day.
In a partnership with producer Jeff Koz (who had worked with Frederick on The Last Horror Film in 1982 and Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse in 1984), Frederick formed the band The Kinetix and released the single, "Don't Stand In The Shadow" for Columbia Records, in 1984.
Late 1970s to early 1980s: film composing and acting in film on stage
By the late 1970s, Frederick had changed his beat to movie and TV score composing.
In 1980, he performed vocals for the character "Tommy Dee" (played by Paul Land) in the Taylor Hackford film The Idolmaker. A single from the picture's soundtrack, "Here Is My Love", was released in both stereo and mono formats. That same year, Frederick played Alice Cooper's roadie in the film Roadie. Also that year he performed in Goosebumps a rock musical stage show directed and choreographed by David Winters. It co-starred Carl Anderson, and Shabba Doo.[2][3]
In 1982, Frederick reunited with director Winters and composed the score for his motion picture The Fanatic (aka The Last Horror Film). Many more major theatrical titles would follow, including that of Garry Marshall's 1984 hit The Flamingo Kid.
Mid to late 1980s: foray into TV: Bennett Salvay and Miller/Boyett
In the mid-1980s, as a result of his movie scoring work, Frederick began a partnership writer/composer (Paul) Bennett Salvay. The two musicians had both come off Garry Marshall-produced projects at the time they began working together. Frederick had just completed his scoring for The Flamingo Kid, while Salvay had been music director in the later seasons of the hit series
When producers
Perfect Strangers
When ABC slated the new Miller/Boyett project to premiere on Tuesdays in March 1986, following some cast changes, it went into official production under the new title,
Valerie/Valerie's Family
Beginning in the 1986-87 season, Frederick and Salvay were asked to score selected episodes of NBC's Miller/Boyett-produced sitcom Valerie, which had premiered in March 1986, three weeks before the debut of Perfect Strangers on ABC. Charles Fox handled composing on Valerie for the show's first two seasons (in fact, it was the only Miller/Boyett series from the Lorimar era to use Fox), with Bruce Miller taking over regular scoring from seasons three through six. Frederick and Salvay scored three episodes: one which aired in November 1986, another in April 1987 (which they co-scored with Steven Chesne) and a third in the spring of 1988, after the series had been retitled Valerie's Family.
Full House
In 1987, Frederick and Salvay wrote their second title track for Miller-Boyett, "Everywhere You Look", for the new ABC fall sitcom
By this point, it was recognized that the strength in Frederick and his partner's work was found in their knack for lyric-heavy, uplifting compositions. There was a common theme between most: that of realizing one's dreams, and making a success out of one's life. It was these ingredients that touched a generation of young viewers especially. Frederick and Salvay's underscores for Full House, which were more sentimental and instrument-heavy than on earlier hit Perfect Strangers, became the signature sound the two are also most recognized for.
There is much speculation that Frederick inspired the creation of one of the series' main characters. When Full House was in early development in 1986 (under the working title House of Comics), the role eventually given to star John Stamos was that of Adam Cochran, one of three comedians sharing a house in San Francisco. Once the format was revised and the original pilot set to shoot, Stamos' character became Jesse Cochran (later renamed Jesse Katsopolis as a nod to Stamos's Greek ethnicity), the super-cool rock musician brother-in-law of Danny Tanner (played in the unaired pilot by John Posey, before Bob Saget became available for the role). Fitting in with the character's new image, it is believed that naming him "Jesse" and turning him into a rocker was inspired by the real-life persona of Frederick. However, series creator Jeff Franklin has stated that when the character was being renamed, he was reminded of Elvis Presley's twin brother Jesse, who had died at a young age.
In 2015, "Everywhere You Look" was re-recorded with Carly Rae Jepsen on vocals for Full House's Netflix sequel series, Fuller House.
Family Matters
Joining ABC's established Miller/Boyett shows on the newly developed TGIF in September 1989 was
By the sixth episode of Family Matters, Miller and Boyett, along with show creators William Bickley and Michael Warren, decided that they wanted a more sitcom-esque opening theme for the show. Frederick and Salvay wrote an original title track featuring a jazzy, ragtime piano prologue leading into an upbeat melody, again using high orchestration. Titled "As Days Go By", it was sung by Frederick with a back-up chorus of male singers. Family Matters was only a moderate success until Jaleel White's Steve Urkel was added in early 1990, becoming the show's breakout character. "As Days Go By" remained as the Family Matters theme in various forms until the beginning of the show's seventh season. It wasn't until the start of the series' fifth season in 1993 that Frederick and Salvay composed a closing version of "As Days Go By"; it was a hip-hop sounding rendition with a saxophone domination. The melody was slightly altered so that it didn't closely match the notes of the opening version.
1990s success
In 1990, the works of Frederick and Salvay received dramatically increased air time in the US. Perfect Strangers went into rerun syndication that fall. As a result, their music was being played on a five-days-a-week basis. Further, Miller/Boyett had just acquired a complete programming stake in ABC's hit TGIF lineup, having four of their comedies air back-to-back. Full House, Family Matters and Perfect Strangers were joined by freshman series
Programs that ensued for the duo included
In the later years of their run with Miller/Boyett, Frederick and Salvay would alternate score composing duties with other resident talents such as Steven Chesne and Gary Boren. On some series, such as Perfect Strangers in its last few seasons, the two were replaced entirely (in this case, by Boren). After the conclusion of Full House and cancelation of On Our Own, both in 1995, Frederick and Salvay continued work on most remaining Miller/Boyett shows. However, there would be no new projects from the producers until 1997, when Miller and Boyett developed the new CBS comedy
Frederick and Salvay continued working for their longtime employers, even as their parent production companies went through further changes in the late 1990s. In 1997, Michael Warren began the transition of splitting away professionally from William Bickley. The former teamed up with Miller and Boyett, forming Miller-Boyett-Warren Productions, initially to produce Meego. Bickley-Warren Productions remained active for one more season (1997–98) to produce the final season of Family Matters and Step by Step, which both were cancelled by CBS (the network both series had moved to that season) in 1998. Miller-Boyett-Warren had a new project for ABC in the works for that fall, which would end up being the final TV series project for Frederick and Salvay, as well as for the producers. That September,
Return to television scoring
In 2015, Full House creator Jeff Franklin, along with Miller and Boyett, were all underway in launching the long-rumored revival series to Full House, entitled Fuller House. It marked the first time since the late 1990s that Jeff Franklin Productions and Miller-Boyett Productions were active in TV series producing, and ultimately, that Frederick and Salvay were working on music compositions for episodic television. As Fuller House moved into production, the producers were successful in courting Frederick and Salvay back to compose the score and theme music for the show; the pair oversaw all music arrangement for the entire 13-episode first season, which premiered on Netflix on February 26, 2016. While Frederick and Salvay worked on the incidental scene change music together, they formed a partnership with singer Carly Rae Jepsen and songwriter/producer Butch Walker to remix "Everywhere You Look" in new vocal and instrumental forms, those of which would serve as the opening and closing themes to Fuller House. Jepsen performed the opening vocals to "Everywhere You Look", and the official commercial release of the song features never-before released verses that Frederick, Salvay and Jeff Franklin wrote for the track back in 1987, but of which were never included in broadcasts of Full House.
Parody
Frederick was also hired by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to sing lyrics for the show's parody of themes for various TGIF shows, such as Family Matters and Full House; the music accompanied a cold open parodying said show's intros, and starred Fallon, Steve Higgins, and The Roots.[4]
Work with other TV producers
During his years co-writing with Bennett Salvay, Frederick occasionally received work with other TV producers. In 1986, he and Salvay wrote the theme song to the short-lived CBS sitcom
Also in 1988, due to their primary employment on sitcoms produced by Lorimar, Frederick and Salvay scored selected episodes of CBS' Falcon Crest, a dramatic Lorimar production.
In 1992, Frederick and Salvay were asked by Full House creator Jeff Franklin to handle scoring duties, with Gary Boren, on his new ABC sitcom
Personal life
He is married to his wife, Holly. Together, they have two sons, Kieran and Nikolas.[5]
References
- ^ Horowitz, Steven J. (February 22, 2016). "Carly Rae Jepsen Talks 'Fuller House' Theme Song". Rolling Stone.
- ^ Keinberg, David (1980-06-20). "Giving 'Goosebumps' In Winters' Way Of Finding Music in One's Self". The San Francisco Examiner. 1980: 234 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "TGIF The Great Index to Fun". The San Francisco Examiner: 52. 1980-06-25 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Tonight Show's TGIF Theme Song". YouTube.
- ^ Parks, Lynn. "Seaford resident part of song remake for updated TV show". Seafood Star. Retrieved 28 June 2018.[permanent dead link]
External links
- Jesse Frederick at IMDb
- Jesse Frederick discography at Discogs