“Lady Marmalade,” which features five of the hottest divas in the music world—Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliot, Mya and Pink—and the French come-on line, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?” is the number one song in the country.

It’s also the handiwork of Fox Music President Robert M. Kraft ’76.

Kraft spent the past three years overseeing work on the soundtrack for the movie Moulin Rouge, which uses its music as a fundamental plot device.

In fact, Kraft is ultimately responsible for the music in every movie and TV show released by 20th Century Fox. In his job, Kraft may spend one day convincing Sting to write a hit song and the next helping Danny Elfman write fitting music for Planet of the Apes.

For the first time in his life, Kraft isn’t doing much performing or composing.

Now, he appoints others to work on the minutiae of song production while he oversees their progress. He works behind a desk and telephone, instead of a piano and microphone, but his background as a musician was the perfect preparation for his current position.

“I don’t know if I could do the job I currently have if I hadn’t been an artist for 18 years,” Kraft says. “I bring to the executive chair a true sensitivity to the role of the songwriter, and bass player and piano player because I’ve had those gigs.”

Music has always been Kraft’s passion in life and he knew since childhood that he would pursue it.

But, after deciding against attending music conservatory and after being turned away by the Harvard Music department because they felt he had an inadequate background in classical theory, Kraft found a far less traditional path to becoming a musician.

His first real mentor in his Harvard days was an avant-garde composer named David Patterson.

Patterson remembers instructing “Robbie,” as his friends call him, to play a C-major triad at the beginning of his first lesson. Then he asked him the mysteriously simple question, “What is that?” Without missing a beat, Kraft replied, “That’s the chord, that’s the chord you hear out in the world, out in nature.”

Patterson immediately sensed Kraft’s ability of to see the deeper meaning of the music, beyond the mere technical aspects of playing.

With Patterson’s guidance, Kraft began an exploration of the outer boundaries of western music. The duo discarded musical notation whenever it hindered their music. Sometimes they would play from scores that replaced staves and notes with astral charts and nature paintings.

On campus, Kraft made music his primary commitment. He fronted three student bands that gigged at mixers around Harvard and Wellesley. Off stage, the boys would spend hours listening to the cutting edge music of jazz greats like Miles Davis and Chick Corea—influences that seeped into the jazz laced rock tunes that Kraft composed for the bands.

Not pursuing music academically, Kraft found himself studying in the VES department where he developed an interest in the visual arts as well.