Ernest Lee Straughter

Ernest Lee Straughter is an American composer, conductor, songwriter and record producer, born in Los Angeles, California.
In 2011, Straughter sued the singer-songwriter Usher, alleging plagiarism in Usher's song .
Straughter, who is sometimes credited as "E. Straughter" or "E. Strouder", has written songs for Phyllis Hyman, Horace Tapscott, Bobbi Humphrey, and Azar Lawrence.
He was also a session musician in several commercially successful songs, notably as pianist for the 1986 single On My Own, recorded by Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle.
Career
At 8 years old Straughter was first inspired to play music when he played on Liberace's Glass piano at his Hollywood home: where his aunt Gladys Luckie worked for Liberace as a home keeper and chef for 40 years. Straughter comes from a musical family where his father Earl Straughter and mother Sylvia Straughter; both played piano. Ernest's brothers Ray and David Straughter are both song writers and musicians respectively. Ernest's mother started him off on piano with Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune", along with the Broadway Pop classics of George Gershwin and Rogers & Hammerstein. These songs still influence his compositions & orchestration style today. Straughter's dream of becoming an artist / songwriter were first supported by the President of 20th Century Fox Records Neil Portnow, who signed his group "Executive" to a record contract in 1981. Straughter composed the Blue Magic classic "I waited" along with Earth Wind & Fire's lead singer Phillip Bailey and Luther Waters most notable for soundtrack vocalist on the award winning animated movie The Lion King. Ernest also collaborated with Lionel Ritchie on the song "Fly Way" performed by The 40 Thevez and The Dramatics,on their debut album "Honor Amongst Thevz" executive produced by Coolio. Straughter is a contributing producer on rap artist Coolio's third studio album "My Soul". Which peaked at number 39 on Billboards' top 200 album charts. Straughter's Latin flavored song "Spirit of Love" was recorded by Grammy Award winning Latin Icon Eddie Palmieri. Ernest along with his brother Ray Straughter collaborated with Luther Waters to pen the song "People Moving" performed by Azar Lawrence. The title track "People Moving" was sampled on the opening track "Save The Children" for the Joey Badass 2015 #1 hip-hop Billboard charted Album: . Straughter loved the gifted interplay of this young N.Y. Hip-hop artist, and feels that this collaboration set the pace for bringing fresh & exciting music to his works in the future.

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