Stephen Bishop
b. San Diego, California, USA. While he had mastered both piano and trombone, it was an older brother's gift of an electric guitar that launched a vocational flight whereby an unprepossessing, bespectacled 14-year-old became a highly popular songwriter of US pop. In 1967, he formed his first group, the Weeds, who taped some Beatles'-inspired demos in Los Angeles before disbanding. During a consequent seven-year search for a solo recording contract, Bishop worked as a tunesmith for a publishing house before landing a contract in 1976 via the patronage of Art Garfunkel. Indeed, his debut album for ABC Records. Careless, was much in the style of his champion. It also employed the cream of Los Angeles session players. Fortunately for ABC, it was nominated for a Grammy and, like the succeeding BISH, hovered in the lower reaches of the national Top 40 for several months. The spin-off singles (particularly On And On from CARELESS) also fared well. The Four Tops, Chaka Khan and Barbra Streisand covered his compositions and Bishop gained studio assistance from Khan, Garfunkel, Gary Brooker, Steve Cropper, Phil Collins and other stars. He returned these favours by contributing to Collins’ FACE VALUE, and composing Separate Lives. the Englishman's duet with Marilyn Martin from the movie WHITE NIGHTS. 
Bishop's own performances on film included the theme songs to National Lampoon's Animal House (Dream Girl), Roadie (Your Precious Love with Yvonne Elliman), 1982's Tootsie It Might Be You, a non-original) and China Syndrome. In common with the ubiquitous Garfunkel, he also tried his band as a supporting actor—notably in 1980's The Blues Brothers and Kentucky Fried Movie—but his musicianship remains Bishop's calling card. Although his '80s albums have been commercially erratic, he has extended his stylistic range—as exemplified by RED CAB TO MANHATTAN, which embraced both a stab at big band jazz (This Is The Night, and Don't You Worry, a tribute to The Beatles). BOWLING IN PARIS featured contributions from Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Sting and Randy Crawford.