Jay Gruska (; born April 23, 1952) is an American

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

best known for his film and television scoring, and for writing hit songs for a variety of artists. He has composed musical scores for dozens of TV dramas, with over 500 hours of shows played internationally. Gruska has received three

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

nominations, one Genie Award nomination, and nine ASCAP awards. Some of his best-known scores are for the TV shows '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'', '' Charmed'', and ''

Supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

.''

Career

Gruska started his career as a singer/songwriter. He was briefly a member of

Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...

in 1976, replacing Danny Hutton, until the group disbanded. He had recording contracts with

ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...

and Warner Bros. Records with the band Maxus, for which he was the lead singer and songwriter. Warner Bros. Records later released his solo album ''Which One of Us Is Me'', which Gruska also produced. Gruska is also known for co-writing the hit duet " Tell Me I'm Not Dreamin' (Too Good to Be True)" for Jermaine and

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

; the Gloria Loring/ Carl Anderson duet " Friends and Lovers" (also released in a country version under the title "Both To Each Other (Friends and Lovers)," performed by Juice Newton and Eddie Rabbitt); and Amy Grant's " Good for Me". In November 2014, the 200th episode of ''Supernatural'', titled "Fan Fiction", aired on

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

. Gruska wrote and produced two songs for the episode (co-writing the lyrics with

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

Robbie Thompson). Within 24 hours after the episode aired, one of the songs, "The Road So Far", was #3 on the

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

soundtrack chart and #57 among all songs on iTunes.

Personal life

Gruska is the father of Barbara and Ethan Gruska, the members of the pop music duo The Belle Brigade.Kevin Bronson
"The Belle Brigade: All in the Family"
'' L.A. Weekly'', March 31, 2011.

Awards and nominations

Awards

*2014: ASCAP Film/TV Award - Score, ''Supernatural'' *2010: ASCAP Film/TV Award - Score, ''Supernatural'' *1998: ASCAP Film/TV Award - Score, '' Charmed'' *1993: ASCAP Pop Award - "Good for Me" *1988: ASCAP Country Award - "Friends & Lovers (Both to Each Other)" *1988: ASCAP Pop Award - "Friends & Lovers (Both to Each Other)" *1987: ASCAP Country Award - "Friends & Lovers (Both to Each Other)" *1987: ASCAP Pop Award - "Friends & Lovers (Both to Each Other)"

Nominations

*2000:

nomination - Best Original Score, ''Falcone'' *2000: Emmy Award Nomination - Best Main Title Theme Music, ''Falcone'' *1996: Golden Reel Nomination - Music, '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' *1995: Golden Reel Nomination - Music, ''Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' *1994: Golden Reel Nomination - Music, ''Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' *1994: Emmy Award Nomination - Best Main Title Theme Music, ''Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' *1989: Genie Award for Best Original Song nomination - '' Shadow Dancing''

Discography

Solo releases

* ''Gruska on Gruska'' (1974) * ''Which One of Us Is Me'' (1984)

With
Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...

* '' American Pastime'' (1976)

With Maxus

* ''Maxus'' (1981)

Film and television

Songwriting credits

References

External links

jaygruska.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruska, Jay 1952 births Living people American male singer-songwriters American television composers American film score composers Record producers from New York (state) Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Three Dog Night members