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Richard Perry, some of the fashionable and profitable document producers of the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, died on Tuesday (Dec. 24) in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82. The reason for his demise was cardiac arrest, mentioned Daphna Kastner Keitel, a pal.
Perry’s biggest hits embrace Nilsson’s “With out You” and Carly Simon’s “You’re So Useless,” each of which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100 and likewise acquired Grammy nods for document of the 12 months. These two traditional hits typify Perry’s manufacturing type – immaculate, highly effective and exact. Different hits which have that unmistakable Perry stamp embrace Leo Sayer’s “Once I Want You” (additionally a No. 1 on the Scorching 100) and Burton Cummings’ stately “Stand Tall” (a prime 10 hit on the Scorching 100 in 1977).
Perry produced greater than 30 prime 20 hits on the Scorching 100, together with Barbra Streisand’s dynamic model of Laura Nyro’s “Stoney Finish,” by which one the legendary star dove into up to date pop music for the primary time; and an extended string of hits by The Pointer Sisters, together with the exhilarating “I’m So Excited” and “Soar (for My Love).”
Perry was Billboard’s Prime Singles producer on the journal’s end-of-year recaps twice, in 1977 and 1984. He acquired back-to-back Grammy nods for producer of the 12 months, non-classical in 1977 and 1978.
He had a 42-year span of prime 10 albums on the Billboard 200. He first made the highest 10 in July 1968 with a most unlikely venture, an album by pop-culture phenomenon Tiny Tim. His final album venture to make the highest 10 was Rod Stewart’s Fly Me to The Moon…The Nice American Songbook, Vol. 5 in November 2010.
Perry produced back-to-back No. 1 hits on the Scorching 100 by two totally different artists – Ringo Starr (“{Photograph}” and “You’re Sixteen” in 1973-74) and Sayer (“You Make Me Really feel Like Dancing” and “Once I Want You, each in 1977).” The Starr smashes have been historic – the primary and solely time {that a} former Beatle had back-to-back singles that reached No. 1 on the Scorching 100.
Perry by no means received a Grammy in competitors, however lastly acquired a Trustees Award from the Recording Academy in 2015. His different nominations, not already talked about, have been album of the 12 months for Nilsson Schmilsson (the album that housed “With out You” and its quirky follow-up hit, “Coconut”), greatest pop instrumental efficiency for an instrumental model of “Soar (For My Love)” (The Pointer Sisters received greatest pop efficiency by a duo or group with vocal for the vocal model) and greatest music video, quick type, for The Pointer Sisters’ So Excited compilation, on which he was the video director.
Perry’s lengthy string of hits with The Pointer Sisters actually confirmed what he might do. The group was thought-about a B-act, at greatest, when Perry introduced in 1978 that he was signing them to his new Planet Information. The group had had a few average hits, however few anticipated them to develop into some of the constant acts in pop music. Beneath Perry’s steerage, they did simply that, with 5 prime 5 hits on the Scorching 100 – a canopy of Bruce Springsteen’s “Fireplace,” “He’s So Shy” (a Tom Snow/Cynthia Weil track with a mode that harkened again to the girl-group hits of the early ’60s), “Gradual Hand,” “Automated” and “Soar (For My Love),” which went on to soundtrack one in every of cleverest scenes in Love Really, when the prime minister performed by Hugh Grant merely can’t resist that beat. (Who might?)
Perry was very a lot a pop producer, however his music touched different genres, too. He produced Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson’s “To All of the Women I’ve Beloved Earlier than,” which reached No. 1 on Scorching Nation Songs in 1984 and received single of the 12 months on the Academy of Nation Music Awards and was nominated in that class on the Nation Music Affiliation Awards. Perry additionally had No. 1 hits on the R&B and dance charts.
Richard Van Perry was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 18, 1942, to Mack and Sylvia Perry, who manufactured and offered musical devices and likewise served as music academics. After graduating from the College of Michigan in 1964 with a level in music and theater, Perry returned to New York. He shaped his personal unbiased document manufacturing firm, Cloud 9 Productions, in June 1965. In March 1967, he moved to Los Angeles. His first album manufacturing job was Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band’s debut, Protected as Milk, which he co-produced with Bob Krasnow. The album was launched in June 1967. That November, Perry was employed by Warner Bros. Information as a workers producer.
His first project was recording Tiny Tim, who had develop into a novelty sensation on Rowan and Martin’s Snigger-In, the runaway No. 1 present on TV. The ukelele-playing falsetto singer’s debut album, God Bless Tiny Tim, rose to No. 7 on the Billboard 200, boosted by a remake of the Nineteen Twenties novelty tune “Tip-Toe Via’ the Tulips With Me,” which turned a prime 20 hit on the Scorching 100.
Perry additionally recorded albums with legendary stars Fat Domino (Fat Is Again) and Ella Fitzgerald (Ella), each of which cracked the Billboard 200. Perry left Warner Bros. in 1970 and nearly instantly turned some of the in-demand producers in pop.
His first large rating as an indie producer was Streisand’s Stoney Finish, launched in late 1970, on which the then-28-year-old celebrity was, for the primary time, singing songs written by and supposed for an viewers of individuals roughly her personal age. The album cracked the highest 10 on the Billboard 200 in March 1971, changing into Streisand’s first prime 10 album in additional than 4 years. Perry additionally produced her subsequent two albums, Barbra Joan Streisand and Reside Live performance on the Discussion board. These initiatives pointed the extra up to date route for a lot of of Streisand’s largest successes within the Nineteen Seventies, together with A Star Is Born in 1976.
In 1973, Perry produced Starr’s album Ringo. John Lennon wrote the opening observe, “I’m the Biggest,” which constituted the closest factor to a Beatles reunion within the decade between the band’s breakup in 1970 and Lennon’s demise in 1980. Starr, Lennon and George Harrison all performed on the observe (together with Billy Preston and Klaus Voormann). Paul McCartney wasn’t concerned within the observe, however he and Linda McCartney contributed one other track, “Six O’Clock,” which they appeared on. The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, stored out the highest spot by Elton John’s unbudgeable Goodbye Yellow Brick Highway.
In January 1974, Rolling Stone named Perry “Producer of the Yr” for 1973 in its Rolling Stone Music Awards “for his work with Carly Simon (with session drop-in Mick Jagger) and with Ringo Starr (with guests Lennon, Harrison and McCartney).”
In 1978, Perry performed a document producer in American Scorching Wax, a movie about DJ Alan Freed. (In 1955, at age 12, Perry had been an everyday at Freed’s stay exhibits on the Brooklyn Paramount Theater.)
Perry produced DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night time,” a prime 5 hit in 1985 and the primary prime 5 hit written by hit machine Diane Warren. Whereas most of Perry’s hits have been new songs, he additionally produced his share of hit remakes, together with Johnny Burnette’s “You’re Sixteen” (for Ringo Starr, then 33, an age-inappropriate track choice that hardly induced a rippled again then however could be rather more problematic right now), Inez Foxx (with Charlie Foxx)’s “Mockingbird” (for pop music’s “It Couple” of 1974, Carly Simon and James Taylor), The Platters’ “Solely You” (additionally for Ringo Starr) and the Flamingos’ “I Solely Have Eyes for You” (for Artwork Garfunkel).
In 1988, Perry produced a ardour venture, Rock, Rhythm and Blues, which consisted of traditional oldies from the ’50s, every carried out by a distinct up to date artist. Elton John, Christine McVie, Chaka Khan and Michael McDonald, amongst others, have been featured on the album. One of many tracks, Randy Travis’ model of Brook Benton’s “It’s Only a Matter of Time,” topped Billboard’s Scorching Nation Songs chart and acquired a Grammy nod for greatest nation vocal efficiency, male.
In 1993, Perry produced Ray Charles’ My World, which made the Billboard 200. A observe from the album, Leon Russell’s traditional “A Tune for You,” made Billboard’s Scorching R&B Singles chart and received a Grammy for greatest R&B vocal efficiency, male.
Perry and Carly Simon reunited in 2004 for the requirements assortment Moonlight Serenade, which reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and acquired a Grammy nod for greatest conventional pop vocal album. Perry did a few of his most interesting work with Simon. “You’re So Useless” is solely one of many biggest singles of the Nineteen Seventies. The No Secrets and techniques album, which headed the Billboard 200 for 5 weeks in early 1973, is a traditional, from its revealing album cowl (very provocative for 1972) to its no-skips lineup of songs. “No one Does It Higher,” launched in 1977, is likely one of the greatest and sexiest James Bond themes ever written (hat tip: songwriters Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager).
Perry’s final large hurrah on the Billboard charts was on Rod Stewart’s The Nice American Songbook collection. All 5 volumes, which rolled out between 2002 and 2010, made the highest 5 on the Billboard 200. All 5 acquired Grammy nods for greatest conventional pop vocal album. Perry was credited as a producer on 4 of the 5 volumes.
In April 2020, Perry revealed his memoir, Cloud 9: Memoirs of a File Producer.
Perry is survived by his youthful brothers Roger, Fred and Andrew. His marriages to Linda Goldner and Rebecca Broussard resulted in divorce. Perry was in a relationship with actress and activist Jane Fonda from 2009 to 2017.
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