Acclaimed record producer Richard Perry has died aged 82.
Perry passed away yesterday (December 24) in Los Angeles. His cause of death was cardiac arrest, as confirmed by his friend Daphna Kastner Keitel.
“He maximized his time here,” Kastner said in a statement, per AP. “He was generous, fun, sweet and made the world a better place. The world is a little less sweeter without him here. But it’s a little bit sweeter in heaven.”
Renowned as a producer, Perry received a Grammys Trustee Award in 2015. Over his four-decade career, he worked with acts such as Rod Stewart, The Beatles, The Pointer Sisters, Barbra Streisand and Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel and Diana Ross, among others.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 18 1942, and his parents manufactured and sold musical instruments and also worked as music teachers. Perry went on to study music and theatre at the University of Michigan, before graduating in 1964 and returning to New York to form his own independent record production company, Cloud Nine Productions.
In 1967 Perry moved to Los Angeles, where he produced his first album – Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band’s debut, ‘Safe as Milk’. That year, Warner Bros. Records hired him as a staff producer.
Among his first credits in that role were novelty sensation Tiny Tim’s debut album ‘God Bless Tiny Tim’ – which included the Top 20 hit ‘Tip-Toe Thru’ the Tulips With Me’ – and Ella Fitzgerald‘s ‘Ella’.
One of Perry’s most recognisable hits was Carly Simon’s 1972 single ‘You’re So Vain’, which featured backing vocals from Mick Jagger. The song reached Number One and sparked decades of debate regarding who the scathing track was about.
In his 2021 memoir Cloud Nine, Perry wrote: “I’ll take this opportunity to give my insider’s scoop. The person that the song is based on is really a composite of several men that Carly dated in the ’60s and early ’70s, but primarily, it’s about my good friend, Warren Beatty.”
A year after releasing ‘You’re So Vain’, Perry famously helped to facilitate an almost reunion for the Beatles, when he produced Ringo Starr‘s third solo album ‘Ringo’. The John Lennon-penned ‘I’m The Greatest’ saw Lennon take on backing vocals and keyboards, Starr on drums and George Harrison on guitar. Though Paul McCartney didn’t make it for that track, he contributed to the album track ‘Six O’Clock’, which also featured Linda McCartney on backing vocals.
‘Ringo’ was a commercial success, selling over one million copies and reaching Number 2 on the Billboard Album Charts.
Reflecting on the experience in his memoir, Perry said: “As I looked around the room, I realised that I was at the very epicenter of the spiritual and musical quest I had dreamed of for so many years.” He continued: “By the end of each session, a small group of friends had gathered, standing silently along the back wall, just thrilled to be there.”
He leant his production to over 30 Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 throughout his career, including The Pointer Sisters’ ‘I’m So Excited’ and ‘Jump (For My Love)’, as well as Barbra Streisand’s ‘Stoney End’, a cover of Laura Nyro.
“Richard had a knack for matching the right song to the right artist,” Streisand wrote about the late producer in her 2023 memoir, My Name is Barbra.
Between 2002-2005 Perry’s greatest success came in the form of Rod Stewart’s ‘The Great American Songbook’ albums. The project saw Steward release four volumes of standards while struggling with writer’s block following his divorce.
Steward has paid tribute to Perry today, taking to Instagram to say “farewell” to the producer, who he refers to as his “dear buddy”.
“They say in life a man is lucky if he can count his true friends on one hand, and you were certainly one of them,” his statement reads. “Now I’ve lost you and I’m devastated. We played and worked so closely together for so many years, creating some of the most memorable music together.
“You were there when Penny and I first started dating, encouraging our relationship,” Stewart continues. “We are both in tears as I post this farewell.”
In 2007, Perry worked on Art Garfunkel’s ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, receiving both producer and singing credits.
According to his website, his final production credit is from 2011, when he worked on the cast recording of the Broadway production Baby It’s You!
