Goodbye to Richard Perry, producer of great hits. He was 82 years old

Richard Perrysuccessful record producer with an aptitude for both standards and contemporary sounds, whose many hits included “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon“The Great American Songbook” series by Rod Stewart and an album by Ringo Starr with all four Beatlesdied Tuesday. He was 82 years old.

Perry, winner of a Grammy Trustee Award (the lifetime achievement award) in 2015, died in a Los Angeles hospital after cardiac arrest, as stated by his friend Daphna Kastner.

“He made the most of his time here,” said Kastner, who called him a “brotherly friend” and said he was her son’s godfather. “He was generous, funny, sweet and made the world a better place. The world is a little less sweet without him. But heaven is a little sweeter.”

Perry has proven himself comfortable with a wide variety of musical styles throughout his career, and is one of the few producers to have had a No. 1 hit. 1 on the pop, R&B, dance and country charts.

The American artist was born in New York into a family of musicians; his parents, Mark and Sylvia Perry, were co-founders of Peripole Music, a company at the forefront of producing youth instruments. With the help and encouragement of his family, he learned to play the drums and oboe and helped form a doo-wop group, the Escorts, which released a handful of singles.

A graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in music and theater, he initially dreamed of acting on Broadway. Instead, in the mid-1960s he made a “life-changing” decision to form a production company with a recent acquaintance, Gary Katz, who would work with, among others, Steely Dan.

By the end of the decade, Perry was an industry star working on the acclaimed cult album of Captain Beefheart “Safe As Milk” and produces music for Ella Fitzgerald. At the beginning of the 70s he supervised the millionaire album of the Streisand “Stoney End”, in which the singer abandons the melodies that made her famous and moves towards pop and rock. He also signed the production of “If You Could Read My Mind”. Gordon Lightfoot.

He collaborated on “Without You” by Harry Nilsson and “I’m So Excited” by Pointer Sistersin the passage of Willie Nelson-Julio Iglesias “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before”. Perry was widely known as a “musician’s producer”, who treated artists to their desires. Singers turned to him to update their sound (Barbra Streisand), to turn back time (Stewart), to relaunch their careers (Fats Domino) or to keep initial promises (Leo Sayer).

Berry’s life was full of famous friends and the right places. He was backstage at the 1950s performances of Little Richard And Chuck Berrysat in the third row at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival during the memorable set of Otis Redding and attended the recording session of the classic album by Rolling Stones “Let It Bleed”. In a week he could find himself having dinner one evening with Paul And Linda McCartney and the next evening with Mick And White Jagger. He attended, among others, Elizabeth Taylor And Jane Fonda and was briefly married to the actress Rebecca Broussard.

In his autobiography Rod Stewart recalls Perry’s West Hollywood home as “the scene of many a late-night romp in the Seventies, a place you knew you could always walk into at the end of an evening for a proper party with drinks, music and dance.”

In the 1970s, Perry helped facilitate a quasi-reunion of the Beatles.

He had produced a song on ‘s first solo album Ringo Starr“Sentimental Journey”, and had become close to him through Nilsson and other mutual friends. “Ringo”, released in 1973, would demonstrate that the drummer was a commercial force in his own right, featuring some well-placed names. The album, with contributions from Nilsson, Billy Preston, Steve Cropper, Martha Reeves and all five members of The Bandsreached no. 2 on Billboard and sold more than 1 million copies. Successful singles included the hit “Photograph,” co-written by Starr e George Harrisonand the remake of the 1950s song “You’re Sixteen.”

But for Perry and others, the most memorable song was a custom-made non-hit. “I’m the Greatest” by John Lennon. It was an anthem for the drummer who brought three Beatles into the studio just three years after the band broke up. Starr was on drums and singing, Lennon was on keyboards and backing vocals, and Klaus Voormann, a longtime friend of the Beatles, played bass. They were still working on the song when Harrison’s assistant called asking if the guitarist could join them. Harrison arrived shortly thereafter.

“Looking around the room, I realized I was at the epicenter of the spiritual and musical quest I had dreamed of for so many years,” Perry writes in his 2021 memoir, “Cloud Nine.” “At the end of each session, a small group of friends had gathered, standing silently along the back wall, excited to be there.” Paul McCartney he wasn’t in town for “I’m the Greatest,” but he helped write and arrange the ballad “Six O’Clock,” featuring the former Beatle and Linda McCartney on vocals.

But as a producer, Perry’s “big score” was as the producer of “You’re So Vain”. Carly Simon. This ballad about an unnamed lover, with Voormann’s bass kicking off the song and Jagger joining backing vocals, reached number one in 1972, sparking speculation about who the song was aimed at. Secret that was revealed by the producer himself.

“I take this opportunity to give my insider scoop,” he wrote in his memoir. “The person the song is based on is actually a collection of several men that Carly dated in the ’60s and early ’70s, but mostly it’s my good friend Warren Beatty.”

Perry’s work after the 1970s included hit singles such as “Neutron Dance”. Pointer Sisters and “Rhythm of the Night” by DeBargeas well as albums by Simon, Ray Charles and Art Garfunkel.

The greatest success was achieved with the millionaire albums of Rod Stewart “The Great American Songbook”, a project made possible by writer’s block and the rock star’s troubled private life.

By the early 2000s, Stewart’s marriage to Rachel Hunter was over and Perry was among those consoling him. Since Stewart struggled to come up with original songs, he and Perry agreed that an album of standards, including “The Very Thought of You,” “Angel Eyes” and “Where or When,” might work.

“We were at a table in the back of our favorite restaurant exchanging ideas and jotting them down on a napkin,” Perry writes in his memoir. “Stewart sang the options. As I sat and listened to him sing, it was clear that we both felt we were on the right track,” Perry added.