Richard Perry, one of the crucial fashionable and profitable report producers of the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, died on Tuesday (Dec. 24) in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82. The reason for his loss of life was cardiac arrest, stated Daphna Kastner Keitel, a pal.
Perry’s best hits embody 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 in addition acquired Grammy nods for report of the 12 months. These two basic hits typify Perry’s manufacturing model – immaculate, highly effective and exact. Different hits which have that unmistakable Perry stamp embody Leo Sayer’s “After I Want You” (additionally a No. 1 on the Scorching 100) and Burton Cummings’ stately “Stand Tall” (a high 10 hit on the Scorching 100 in 1977).
Perry produced greater than 30 high 20 hits on the Scorching 100, together with Barbra Streisand’s dynamic model of Laura Nyro’s “Stoney Finish,” wherein one the legendary star dove into modern 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 “Leap (for My Love).”
Perry was Billboard’s High 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 high 10 albums on the Billboard 200. He first made the highest 10 in July 1968 with a impossible 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 completely different artists – Ringo Starr (“{Photograph}” and “You’re Sixteen” in 1973-74) and Sayer (“You Make Me Really feel Like Dancing” and “After 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”), finest pop instrumental efficiency for an instrumental model of “Leap (For My Love)” (The Pointer Sisters received finest pop efficiency by a duo or group with vocal for the vocal model) and finest 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 finest, when Perry introduced in 1978 that he was signing them to his new Planet Data. The group had had a few average hits, however few anticipated them to turn into one of the crucial constant acts in pop music. Below Perry’s steering, they did simply that, with 5 high 5 hits on the Scorching 100 – a canopy of Bruce Springsteen’s “Hearth,” “He’s So Shy” (a Tom Snow/Cynthia Weil tune with a mode that harkened again to the girl-group hits of the early ’60s), “Sluggish Hand,” “Automated” and “Leap (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 Ladies I’ve Liked 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 bought musical devices and in addition 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 fashioned his personal unbiased report 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. Data as a workers producer.
His first project was recording Tiny Tim, who had turn into a novelty sensation on Rowan and Martin’s Chortle-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 Twenties novelty tune “Tip-Toe Through’ the Tulips With Me,” which grew to become a high 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 virtually instantly grew to become one of the crucial in-demand producers in pop.
His first massive rating as an indie producer was Streisand’s Stoney Finish, launched in late 1970, on which the then-28-year-old famous person was, for the primary time, singing songs written by and meant 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 high 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 modern route for a lot of of Streisand’s greatest successes within the Nineteen Seventies, together with A Star Is Born in 1976.
In 1978, Perry performed a report producer in American Scorching Wax, a movie about DJ Alan Freed. (In 1955, at age 12, Perry had been an everyday at Freed’s reside reveals on the Brooklyn Paramount Theater.)
Perry produced DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night time,” a high 5 hit in 1985 and the primary high 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 tune choice that hardly prompted a rippled again then however can be far more problematic at the moment), 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 basic oldies from the ’50s, every carried out by a distinct modern 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 finest nation vocal efficiency, male.
In 1993, Perry produced Ray Charles’ My World, which made the Billboard 200. A monitor from the album, Leon Russell’s basic “A Track for You,” made Billboard’s Scorching R&B Singles chart and received a Grammy for finest 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 finest conventional pop vocal album. Perry did a few of his best work with Simon. “You’re So Useless” is just one of many best singles of the Nineteen Seventies. The No Secrets and techniques album, which headed the Billboard 200 for 5 weeks in early 1973, is a basic, 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 finest and sexiest James Bond themes ever written (hat tip: songwriters Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager).
Perry’s final massive 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 finest conventional pop vocal album. Perry was credited as a producer on 4 of the 5 volumes.
In April 2020, Perry printed his memoir, Cloud 9: Memoirs of a Report 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.
