Gauthier was born in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada in 1950.[1]: 181
Gauthier started his career as guitarist for small rock bands. In 1971, he became an accompanist for Claire Lepage.[1]: 181
He then started composing music for other authors. He wrote Le mur derrière la grange for Donald Lautrec, Un gars comme toi for Renée Claude and Tous les jours de la semaine for Pierre Létourneau. He published his first album in 1974, and continued collaborating with other authors; notably, Pierre Létourneau and Luc Plamondon.[1]: 181
Starting in 1979, he wrote multiple publicly acclaimed songs for Diane Dufresne, Renée Claude, Nicole Martin, Martine St-Clair, Fabienne Thibault and Nanette Workman. In 1982, Gauthier's composition Call Girl (for Workman, with Plamondon) won the Félix Award for the best-selling 45-rpm record.[1]: 181–182
Gauthier then recorded some discs and composed the music for the rock opera Les aventures d'Ultra-Vinyl (1983), for the first album of Marc Drouin (1984), for the film Call Girl (1984), for the film La guerre des tuques (1984),[1]: 182 for Petula Clark (Mr. Orwell, 1984)[2] and for the musical Vis ta vinaigrette (1986).[1]: 182
Later, he composed for Marie Carmen (Piaf chanterait du rock), Roch Voisine (Avant de partir),[1]: 182 Céline Dion ("Dion chante Plamondon")[2] and Joe Bocan (Repartir à zéro). Repartir à zéro won the Radio-Mutuel Great-Prize of Québécois songs.[1]: 182 He was nicknamed "Monsieur Hits" (Mr. Hits).[2]
Gauthier won the François Cousineau Prize from the Société professionnelle des auteurs et compositeurs du Québec [fr] in 2007. Six of his songs were named Classics of Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.[3]
He died on 28 August 2025. By his death, his discography totalled over 325 songs, 35 of which had reached number one in Quebec.[2]
