Joseph Koo Kar-fai was born in Guangzhou on 25 February 1931, with ancestral roots in Suzhou, Jiangsu, and moved to Hong Kong with his family in 1948. Inspired by his elder sister, the singer Carrie Ku Mei, he fell in love with music, organising an orchestra that performed publicly and was broadcast by Rediffusion, and he worked on the music of the Motion Picture and General Investment film The Dream of a Beautiful Woman (1958). In 1960 he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in the United States, with Run Run Shaw covering his travel costs and acting as guarantor, and studied there before returning the next year; his song 'Dream' was chosen as an inserted number for the film The Love Eterne (1961), launching his film-music career. Working freelance for Shaw Brothers, he won Best Song at the 11th Asian Film Festival for Spring Flowers Everywhere (1964) and Best Music at the 5th Golden Horse Awards for When Will You Return (1966), and he scored such films as Fist of Fury (1972) and A Better Tomorrow (1986). He joined Television Broadcasts in the early 1970s, serving as conductor and writing music for many kinds of programme. His theme for the serial The Fatal Irony (1974) sparked a craze, and he went on to write themes for Hotel (1976), A House Is Not a Home (1977) and The Bund (1980), as well as the RTHK series Below the Lion Rock, collaborating with the lyricist James Wong on 'Below the Lion Rock' (1979, sung by Roman Tam) and 'The Bund' (1980, sung by Frances Yip). In 1981 he received the top honour at RTHK's Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards, and in 1991 he won Best Film Music at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for A Terracotta Warrior, with James Wong and Romeo Diaz. He scored more than two hundred films and composed over 1,200 songs, and in 2015 held a run of twelve farewell concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum before retiring. He died in Vancouver, Canada, on 3 January 2023, aged 92.
By blending Western arranging with Cantonese melody, Koo helped turn television theme songs into shared memory for Hong Kong people in the 1970s and 1980s. Songs such as 'Below the Lion Rock' and 'The Bund' have been sung for decades, establishing Cantopop's standing and offering a model for later composers and arrangers.
Achievements
- 1974 · Wrote the theme for the Television Broadcasts serial The Fatal Irony, sparking a craze for Cantonese theme songs
- 1979 · 'Below the Lion Rock', with lyrics by James Wong and sung by Roman Tam, later became a symbol of the Hong Kong spirit
- 1991 · Won Best Film Music at the 10th Hong Kong Film Awards for A Terracotta Warrior, with James Wong and Romeo Diaz
- 2015 · Held a run of twelve farewell concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum before retiring