Hitman: Forty Years Making Music, Topping the Charts, and Winning Grammys

by David Foster

Book Overview

After almost four decades in the music business, David Foster -- producer, arranger, songwriter, performer -- is finally ready to talk. In this compelling and outspoken memoir, Foster shares some of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1439103062
• ISBN13: 9781439103067
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Length: 234 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

I really loved this book.

Excellent book. Well worth reading and very entertaining. Also contains some good advice if you want to learn from the best- and David Foster is without a doubt one of the top music producers in the history of the record business. A very good read. Highly recommend.

Interesting Bio

Nice to learn something behind the man who has written, produced, arranged ---done it all for so many! Look forward to many more years of David Foster sharing his amazing talents with all of us!

A good quick read.....

I have always been fascinated by Foster's work with Chicago. I believe his work with Peter Cetera was unbelievable. The book hits the ground running. Don't expect long drawn out stories. He has many experiences to share and recounts them. When an artist was difficult to work with, he shares it. Foster likes to explain in the book that he was great at helping existing artists reach for something higher. He also found new talent and tells of the story of discovering Celine Dion and Josh Groban. He enjoys producing. His experience with playing a variety of instruments and early experience doing session work led to this. One of the memorable stories for me early on the book came when he told of being left in London after his band abandoned him. He stayed there without any contacts or friends, surviving on one main meal per day. The day he left to come back home, Cat Stevens offered him a job but he was home sick and left. He later regretted that, but still had a great career after. Foster believes in his gifts and one never forgets this while reading. He doesn't have much humility, but his enthusiam for his projects is infectious and probably one of the hallmarks of a great producer. I also enjoyed learning about his charity work. The book was a great read.

A MUST read book for anyone interested in "pop" music!

I have always known little about David Foster except that he is "that Canadian guy who worked with Celine Dion et al" I truly enjoyed and appreciated that this man wrote such a revealing but balanced personal history of his years in show business from the humble beginnnings in dreary 60's london to the glitzy over the top L.A. scene in a heyday never to be repeated- Marvin and Barbara Davis' circle. This book is not about parties or excess though. David clues us in early on about his large wholesome Canadian family, he is the only boy in a brood of seven children and he keeps his values throughout his life.He said he knew from the beginning that he would never get involved in the drug scene- and aren't we grateful that he didnt become a casualty like so many? The only disclosure that he rues is his complicated family life as he has several marriages and many gorgeous girls and stepchildren he must manage ; he is very upfront that this has been a checkered path. Most of the book is the meat- his hitmaking ability and his interactions and collaborations with the celebrities he has worked with ,from the gracious and sublimely talented to the rude and dismissive. I found David to be extremely modest and grounded and generous when describing most of his professional relationships. He also explains total unsnobbery as regards those who diss his work, explaining "popular" music is named as such because it is - POPULAR .Just because one may have Miles Davis on the turntable doesn't mean they cannot find something to appreciate about a singer selling millions of records. I found Mr. Foster very refreshing and rational, and lets face it , he is an uber star himself, dong what he does brilliantly.

Great book.......

I first came to know DAVID FOSTER when he produced CHICAGO 16 & 17 for the rock group. I really believed he turned that group around from their sub par previous albums. I enjoyed reading his candid observations of the different acts he has worked with in his career. I also give him credit for admitting the work he has produced and did not "hit". Great reading...