Album Notes

At the age of thirteen, Stephen Bishop found himself at a crossroads. A
clarinetist with hopes of becoming a History teacher, he was forever changed after watching the Beatles one night on "The Ed Sullivan Show." He convinced his brother to buy him an electric guitar. He bought a "Mel Bay" chordbook and began to learn to play guitar and make up chords as well, writing his first song,"Surf's Turf.." a pathetic sounding intrumental. He formed a band called, "The Weeds" and began to play at local faternity parties incorporating his own original songs with various songs from top 40...

The Weeds won 2nd place at the Claremont Battle of the Bands, prompting one of the judges to explaim that "Stephen Bishop is going to be a big songwriter someday!" Determined to fullfill that prophesy, Stephen made the trip to Los Angeles. He walked the streets with his $12 acoustic guitar, playing songs for various publishers in Hollywood... eventually landing a publishing deal at $50 a week for E.H.Morris Publishing. One of his songs was recorded only to be followed by a long wait...many years went by. At one point, Stephen considered leaving L.A. to return home and work for his Dad's Insurance company. Through a good friend, Art Garfunkel heard some of his new songs and recorded two of them on his Gold recording, "Breakaway."

He started playing around town singing his songs in person for artists like,
"Barbra Streisand...Bette Midler..Diana Ross...Michelle Phillips..."
Shortly thereafter, he was signed to ABC Records who released his first album, "Careless." His two hits from that album were,"Save It For a Rainy Day," and "On and On.." Soon the album went gold, as well as his next album, Bish.

He sang the hit theme, "It Might Be You," from the movie, "Tootsie," as well as writing and/or singing 13 other films including, "Animal House," and "Separate Lives.." from "White Nights." His songs have been sung by artists such as: Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Barbra Streisand, Art Garfunkel, Steve Perry, Stephanie Mills, Kenny Loggins, Johnny Mathis, Phoebe Snow, David Crosby, The Four Tops, Aswad and Pavarotti.

Stephen was nominated for two Grammy's and awarded an Oscar nomination for his song, "Separate Lives". His last CD was entitled, "Blue Guitars.." His newest album is an acoustic guitar and vocal solo album called, "YARDWORK." MCA recently released a hit compilation in the Millenium series that is currently out in the stores...Soon he will be releasing his third "best of album," entitled, "MAKE IT LAST...THE HITS OF STEPHEN BISHOP," containing three new songs produced by Peter Bunetta including many movie themes Bishop has performed. He recently
landed a song of his in the new Jack Nicholson film, "Anger Management,"...