Photo Credit: Richard Perry for Billboard Magazine, 1975
Richard Perry, a prominent record producer known for his work with Carly Simon and Barbra Streisand, died Tuesday at age 82.
Richard Perry, the record producer who had a hand in creating dozens of pop hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 82. His friend, actress and screenwriter Daphna Kastner Keitel, told The New York Times he died of cardiac arrest.
Best known for his work on Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” and Barbra Streisand’s Stoney End, Perry also produced Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson and Ringo Starr’s Ringo and Goodnight Vienna. He got his early start with Tiny Tim, recording his debut album, God Bless Tiny Tim, which included the novelty hit and later his signature song, “Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips With Me.”
Born in Brooklyn, Perry sang with a group called The Legends as a teenager before graduating from the University of Michigan. He worked at Warner Bros. Records from 1967 to 1970, overseeing albums like Ella Fitzgerald’s Ella and a comeback record for Fats Domino.
Perry went on to work with artists like Art Garfunkel, Diana Ross, The Pointer Sisters, Andy Williams, and Leo Sayer. He was nominated for seven Grammys throughout his career, including one as a director on The Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited” music video. He was honored by the Grammys with a Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 2015. Most recently, he worked with Rod Stewart on his Great American Songbook albums.
In the studio, Perry called himself a “song doctor.” Other producers left audible fingerprints on their work, but Perry’s style was most identifiable by its clarity. His success earned him a “grudging respect” from critics as an architect of the soft rock of the 1970s.
“I try to make the artist the biggest and best they can possibly be,” said Perry to Musician magazine in 1985. “I always conceived of producing as bringing the artist to life in someone’s living room in the most glorious, complimentary performance one could imagine.”
“Cloud Nine: Memoirs of a Record Producer,” his memoir released in 2020, told the story of his rich life in the music industry. The book features tales of “late-night cruising with Paul Simon, dancing with Tina Turner, and star-filled parties at his home in the Hollywood Hills, which was once owned by Ronald Reagan.”