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 One of the industry’s most talented and versatile record producers/song writers, Rob Fusari has 7 #1 hit singles to his credit and co-executor producer on the Grammy winning “The Fame”, Lady Gaga’s hit debut album (Interscope Records); and co-wrote six tracks; along with the Pop Charts #1 single, “Paparazzi.”. It has charted at #1 in the UK, has been top 10 worldwide. The single won two MTV Moonman Awards at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. It has also charted in the top 3 iTunes digital downloads. Fusari was honored with Ascap’s POP award for Paparazzi being the most performed song of 2009 and he was recently featured in Billboards Top 10 Songwriters.
Fusari’s other tracks on the Fame Monster include “Beautiful/Dirty Rich,” “Brown Eyes,” “Disco Heaven,” “Again and Again”, and “Retro, Dance Freak.”
Well known for his dance driven electro pop sound, Fusari discovered Stefani Germanotta while she was playing showcases at clubs in the East Village and attending NYU. He signed her to his independent production entity Rob Fusari Productions and they began writing together and fashioned her now iconic glam/rock persona. Lady Gaga got her stage name when Fusari compared her vocal style to that of Freddie Mercury, and took the name Gaga from the 1984 Queen single “Radio Ga Ga.” After introducing her to Jimmy Iovine, President of Interscope, she and Fusari have been on a musical trajectory that have made The Fame and Lady Gaga one of the most talked about artists of the year, landing her on the cover of Rolling Stone, Billboard, among other International magazines.
A native of New Jersey, Fusari started in the music business in 1998 at age 22 shortly after graduating from William Patterson College, where he first began song writing. As a child, he studied classical piano and by age 10, he was performing in national competitions which took him to Carnegie Hall on 3 separate occasions. He started recording his own demos and subsequently hooked up with legend songwriter Irwin Levine, best known for the classic hit “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” and several other hits for Tony Orlando and Dawn. Fusari and Levine were soon collaborating and worked together for years.
At about this time, Fusari met producer Vince Herbert, who was working with Destiny’s Child, then a new group recently signed to Columbia Records. Fusari was already working on the track “No, No, No,” which eventually turned into Destiny’s Child’s first Number 1 hit with their debut studio album Destiny’s Child (1998).
As a result of this success, Fusari became a producing partner with Herbert and moved to Los Angeles, where they worked together on many artists including Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, K-Ci & JoJo, Case, Montel Jordan, Total, Tatyana Ali and several artists on Babyface’s Yab Yum label.
By 1999 when Will Smith was looking for title track ideas for his film “Wild Wild West,” Fusari put together some sample tracks which led to eponymous hit single, “Wild Wild West,” which became a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100,. (add info on sales).
Following the astronomical success of “Wild Wild West,” Fusari was first choice producer to work on Destiny’s Child , Survivor album. Columbia’s LaBarbera-Whites, said Beyonce loved working with Rob and was grateful that he was instrumental for the jumpstart of Destiny’s Child career. Again, with one track and the magic of Beyonce together they wrote what would become the hit “Bootylicious.”
Fusari then began working with another Destiny’s Child member, Kelly Rowland, for her solo debut album, Simply Deep. “I really liked working on Kelly’s album, because it gave me the opportunity to stretch a bit musically,” explained Fusari. “I did “Train on a Track” which has a more folk/acoustic sound, more in the vein of Natalie Imbruglia than pure R&B.”
After completing work with Rowland, Fusari received a call from Arista Records to work with Whitney Houston. “Arista liked my song “Love That Man,” and they wanted me to produce it on Whitney’s new album (Just Whitney),” said Fusari. “They flew me to Miami to work with Whitney and I ended up co-producing this song with Babyface.” “Love That Man” was later released as a dance remix single, and it reached #1 on the Billboard dance chart.
Fusari has worked with a wide range of artists in the pop, rap, and dance genres. From artists such as: Jonas Brothers, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, BackStreet Boys, JoJo, American Idol finalist, Adam Lambert, Kimberly Locke & Tamyra Gray to classic dance diva, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, the O'Jay's Taylor Dayne, Patty Smyth. European stars, Estelle, Gareth Gates, Gen and Billy Crawford, and Canadian sensation, Melanie Fiona.
He has collaborated with Topline writers: Cathy Dennis, Kara DioGuardi, Tom Nichols, Wayne Hector, Billy Mann, Toby Gad, Amanda Ghost, Balewa Muhammad.
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