Jesse Frederick
Jesse Frederick James Conaway is an American film and television composer and singer. He wrote and performed the themes to TGIF television shows such as Full House, Family Matters, and Step by Step for ABC.
Early years
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., 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.. 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, 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" 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.
In 1982, Frederick reunited with director Winters and composed the score for his motion picture The Fanatic. 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 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 Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy, for Garry Marshall's Henderson Productions, Miller-Milkis-Boyett Productions and Paramount Television. The pair found they had a dynamic spark of creativity between them, and sought out work on original compositions that would be pitched to TV and movie projects. As Frederick worked on new musical material with him, Salvay would eventually lead them to new opportunities with his TV employers.When producers Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett left Paramount for Lorimar Productions in 1984, they retained many of their former Paramount staffers, including Salvay and music composer Charles Fox. Miller and Boyett quickly set out to develop new projects at Lorimar, and in the process of keeping Salvay on their soundtrack staff, noticed his work with Frederick and commissioned the both of them to be songwriters for their projects, working separately from Fox. In 1985, Miller and Boyett assigned the pair to their new comedy project for ABC, which was titled The Greenhorn in its early stages. Although it was too early to predict at the time, Frederick and Salvay had just embarked on what would be a long-running alliance with Miller-Boyett Productions.
''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, Perfect Strangers. Frederick and Salvay penned their first TV title track, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now", for the series, which obliquely told the ballad of the show's two leads—Balki Bartokomous and Larry Appleton —as the former had dreams of making it in America from the island of Mypos, while the latter had aspirations to make it in Chicago, after moving from Wisconsin. Perfect Strangers went on to become a hit, running eight seasons on ABC, and made Frederick and Salvay's songwriting weekly staples in millions of households across the country. While the lyrics were written by Frederick and Salvay, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now" was sung by David Pomeranz.''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, 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 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 Full House. This theme had a more love-of-the-family-centric subject in its lyrics, but was in line with their work on other Miller/Boyett shows due to its catchiness and upbeat nature. Full House initially struggled in the ratings, but when ABC scheduled it on Tuesdays in addition to its regular Friday slot for a time in 1988, it began a gradual increase in audience size. The series became popular in its second season. It then served as the anchor of ABC's new TGIF lineup in 1989, where Frederick and Salvay's work were about to be heavily showcased. Full House cracked the Nielsen top 30 in its third season and the top 20 in its fourth. Well before it reached its peak in seasons five to seven, "Everywhere You Look", in its various edits, had become a highly referenced and celebrated song among young viewers. The hook that most heavily caught fans' delight was the opening line, which pondered, "Whatever happened to predictability? The milkman, the paperboy, evening TV?"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, 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's character became Jesse Cochran, the super-cool rock musician brother-in-law of Danny Tanner. 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 Family Matters, a spin-off from Perfect Strangers. Frederick and Salvay scored the scenes and the closing theme alone during the series' first few episodes. During the first five ABC broadcasts, the title track was a shortened version of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World". The closing theme that Frederick and Salvay wrote and recorded was a melody loosely based on "What A Wonderful World", featuring a more uptempo beat dominated by saxophone and culminating in an orchestral crescendo.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.