Legendary music producer Richard Perry dies aged 82

Record producer Richard Perry, whose many successes included Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’, Rod Stewart’s ‘The Great American Songbook’ series and a Ringo Starr album featuring all four Beatles, has died aged 82.

Perry, a recipient of a Grammys Trustee Award in 2015, died at a Los Angeles hospital after suffering cardiac arrest, friend Daphna Kastner said.

“He maximized his time here,” said Kastner, who called him a “father friend” and said he was godfather to her son. “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.”

Perry was a onetime drummer, oboist and doo-wop singer who proved at home with a wide variety of musical styles, the rare producer to have No. 1 hits on the pop, R&B, dance and country charts.

He was on hand for Captain Beefheart’s acclaimed cult album ‘Safe As Milk’, Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Ella’, Harry Nilsson’s ‘Without You’, The Pointer Sisters’ ‘I’m So Excited’, Tiny Tim’s novelty smash ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ and the Willie Nelson-Julio Iglesias lounge standard ‘To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before’.

Perry was widely known as a “musician’s producer,” treating artists like peers rather than vehicles for his own tastes. Singers turned to him whether trying to update their sound (Barbra Streisand), set back the clock (Stewart), revive their career (Fats Domino) or fulfill early promise (Leo Sayer).

“Richard had a knack for matching the right song to the right artist,” Streisand wrote in her 2023 memoir, “My Name is Barbra.”

Perry’s life was a story, in part, of famous friends and the right places. He was backstage for 1950s performances by Little Richard and Chuck Berry, sat in the third row at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival during Otis Redding’s memorable set and attended a recording session for the Rolling Stones’ classic ‘Let It Bleed’ album.

A given week might find him dining one night with Paul and Linda McCartney, and Mick and Bianca Jagger the next. He dated Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda among others and was briefly married to the actor Rebecca Broussard.

In the ’70s, Perry helped facilitate a near-Beatles reunion. 

He had produced a track on Starr’s first solo album, ‘Sentimental Journey’, and grown closer to him through Nilsson and other mutual friends. ‘Ringo’, released in 1973, would prove the drummer was a commercial force in his own right — with some well-placed names stopping by. The album, featuring contributions from Nilsson, Billy Preston, Steve Cropper and Martha Reeves, reached No. 2 on Billboard and sold more than 1 million copies. Hit singles included the chart toppers ‘Photograph’, co-written by Starr and George Harrison, and a remake of the 1950s favorite ‘You’re Sixteen’.

But for Perry and others, the most memorable track was a non-hit, custom made. John Lennon’s ‘I’m the Greatest’ was a mock-anthem for the self-effacing drummer that brought three Beatles into the studio just three years after the band’s breakup. Starr was on drums and sang lead, Lennon was on keyboards and backing vocals and longtime Beatles friend Klaus Voormann played bass. They were still working on the song when Harrison’s assistant phoned, asking if the guitarist could join them. Harrison arrived soon after.

McCartney was not in town for ‘I’m the Greatest’, but he did help write and arrange the ballad ‘Six O’Clock’, featuring the ex-Beatle and Linda McCartney on backing vocals. 

Perry had helped make pop history the year before as producer of ‘You’re So Vain’, which he would call the nearest he came to a perfect record. Simon’s scathing ballad about an unnamed lover, with Voormann’s bass runs kicking off the song and Jagger joining on the chorus, hit No. 1 in 1972 and began a long-term debate over Simon’s intended target. Perry’s answer would echo Simon’s own belated response.

“I’ll take this opportunity to give my insider’s scoop,” he wrote in his memoir. “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.” 

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Perry’s post-1970s work included such hit singles as The Pointer Sisters’ ‘Neutron Dance’ and DeBarge’s ‘Rhythm of the Night’, along with albums by Simon, Ray Charles and Art Garfunkel.

He had his greatest success with Stewart’s ‘The Great American Songbook’ albums, a project made possible by the rock star’s writer’s block and troubled private life. In the early 2000s, Stewart’s marriage to Rachel Hunter had ended and Perry was among those consoling him. With Stewart struggling to come up with original songs, he and Perry agreed that an album of standards might work, including ‘The Very Thought of You’, ‘Angel Eyes’ and ‘Where or When’.