Foster was born in Victoria, British Columbia, the son of Maurice (Morry) Foster, a maintenance yard superintendent, and Eleanor May (Vantreight) Foster, a homemaker. In 1963, at the age of 13, he enrolled in the University of Washington music program. In 1965 he auditioned to lead the band in an Edmonton nightclub owned by well known jazz musician Tommy Banks. Tommy mentored David in jazz, producing recording, and in the business of music. After a year there, he decided to move to Toronto to play with Ronnie Hawkins. In 1966, he joined a backup band for Chuck Berry. XThe Canadian Encyclopedia: "David Foster" retrieved September 7, 2015</ref> In 1974, he moved to Los Angeles with his band Skylark.\n', '

Foster was a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark, discovered by Eirik Wangberg. The band\'s song "Wildflower" was a top ten hit in 1973. When the band disbanded, Foster remained in Los Angeles and together with Jay Graydon he formed the band Airplay, whose album of the same name is often labeled as important within the west coast AOR genre. In 1975, he played on George Harrison\'s album Extra Texture. He followed that up by playing the Fender Rhodes and clavinet on Harrison\'s album Thirty Three & 1/3 a year later. In 1976 Foster joined Guthrie Thomas on Thomas\' 2nd Capitol Records album, "Lies and Alibis," with Ringo Starr and a host of many other famed performers. Foster was a major contributor to the 1979 Earth, Wind and Fire album I Am, both as a studio player and arranger, as well as being a cowriter on six of the album\'s tracks. The most noteworthy being the song "After the Love Has Gone", for which Foster and his cowriters, Jay Graydon and Bill Champlin, won the 1980 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.\n', '

Foster worked as an album producer on albums for The Tubes: 1981\'s The Completion Backward Principle, and 1983\'s Outside Inside. Foster cowrote such songs as "Talk to Ya Later" co-written with Tubes and Steve Lukather from Toto, the Top 40 hit "Don\'t Want to Wait Anymore," and the number 10 US hit "She\'s a Beauty". The 1980 Boz Scaggs album Middle Man saw Foster cowrite and play keyboard on some of Scaggs\'s most successful songs, including "Breakdown Dead Ahead", "Jojo", and "Simone", followed by "Look What You\'ve Done to Me" from the film Urban Cowboy.\n', '

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