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RECORD PRODUCERS: THE UNSUNG HEROES OF POP
When you listen to your favourite oldies or classic albums how important do you think the producer is in creating what you hear? Does the producer make a difference to the finished article or are they just twiddling the knobs?
Who are the great producers responsible for the music you hear on Classic Hits Forest Radio and how much did they shape the music? Paul Mumford
dives in and finds out.
My fascination with the 'knob twidddlers'
I’ve always been interested in the work of a record producer. In fact, the more I learn about some of the greats the more I can hear their influence and personality in the music they have helped to create. However, many great record producers are largely ignored.
Sure, we all know how important George Martin
was to the work of The Beatles, how Quincy Jones
weaved his magic on Michael Jackson’s Thriller
or how Nile Rodgers
taught Bowie
to dance and helped Madonna
be more Like a Virgin. But what about people like Roy Thomas Baker, the man behind one of the biggest number ones ever? Or Joe Meek who we have a lot to thank for. Do you know who Mike Chapman is? Before talking about some of the best, let’s answer one big question.
What does a record producer even do?
Good question.
The answer really lies with each producer as they are often quite different. Some play a much bigger part in the outcome than others but they are all much more than knob twiddlers. The music producer can be as influential to the end result as a director is to a movie.
The producer will oversee the sound of the music, how it’s played, what it’s played on, which tracks go on the album, which songs will be released as singles and all points in between. Often producers have a big hand in writing the songs themselves which is perhaps another article for another time. Some producers can turn their hands to a wide range of musical styles and other’s will specialise. Often to the point that it’s easy to see which songs they have worked on … when you discover who they are.
So with all that in mind here are 5 producers you may not have heard of … and what they have been responsible for. I've provided a few Spotify links here so you can go and check out the songs I refer to while reading.
Trevor Horn
Trevor began his musical career as a session bass player. His first big gig was for Tina Charles
(I Love To Love) who he was also dating at the time. He turned to production after being influenced by Tina’s producer Biddu
(he was responsible for a lot of disco).
Trevor's first hit as a producer was the top 20 hit Monkey Chop
by Dan-I. He surfaced again in 1979 and had a big hit writing, singing and producing Video Killed The Radio Star
as The Buggles
which was number one in the UK and was the first video to be played on MTV two years later. From then on he grew in demand as a producer.
Trevor went on to produce some of the biggest, technically innovative and influential music of the 1980s. Most notably for ABC (Lexicon of Love), Dollar, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes (90125), Malcolm McLaren (Buffalo Gals), Grace Jones (Slave To The Rhythm) and Pet Shop Boys (Introspective). It was his Sarm West Studio in West London where Band Aid’s Do The Know It’s Christmas was recorded in 1984.
From the 90’s onwards, Trevor was a big part of Seal’s success (he produced his first four albums). He has also produced albums for Robbie Williams (Reality Killed the Video Star), Marc Almond, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner
and Cher.
When you listen to the songs he’s worked on you will quickly be able to pick up on Trevor’s influence and style.
Roy Thomas Baker
Roy was only 14 when he started working at Decca Records. His mentor at the time was Gus Dudgeon
(Elton John’s producer). Through that connection he was quickly mixing with the music royalty of the early 1970’s. His first production credits can be found on albums by Free
and Nazareth.
It was in 1973 that he met Queen
and wound up producing their first 5 albums, resulting in a few Grammys and having a fair hand in that epic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ thing they did. This led to a contract with CBS Music and further production credits on albums by Journey, Ronnie Wood, The Cars, T'Pau
and Foreigner.
He also spent a few years as Senior Vice President for Elektra Records
signing Simply Red, Metallica
and 10,000 Maniacs
amongst others.
Brian Eno
You may have heard of this dude already. He was the freaky looking guy at the back of all those early Roxy Music
appearances frantically twiddling knobs on his VCS3 synthesiser
and other electronica. Clearly thinking knob twiddling was something he enjoyed, he left Bryan Ferry and co after just two albums and started twiddling knobs on his own.
He churned out a set of 4 highly regarded experimental albums and developed many recording techniques that went on to become commonplace in popular music for many years to come.
His name came back into the mainstream as a collaborator with David Bowie on the 3 albums that made up his Berlin period (Low, Lodger
and Heroes) (all produced by Tony Visconti
who I’ll mention later). It’s partly Eno’s knob twiddling that makes the Bowie hit Heroes sound so other worldly.
So, to production (as that’s what we’re here for). He’s knob twiddled his way through quite a few big albums in his time. The three albums that really put U2 on the map (The Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree
and Zooropa), Two huge albums for Talking Heads (More Songs About Buildings and Food, Remain in Light), We can also add albums by Genesis, Ultravox, James, David Bowie
and Coldplay.
Joe Meek
We can’t ignore this fella because he was a bit of a genius knob twiddler and one of the first real pop producers. After the RAF and working for Radio Luxembourg, Meek set up a production company in Islington and started churning out hits.
You can first hear his knob twiddling prowess on Johnny Remember Me, the UK number one by John Leyton. He is also credited for producing the highly ground breaking instrumental Telstar
by The Tornados, that song became the first song by a British group to reach number one in the USA and won Meek an Ivor Novello Award.
Amongst his other credits are songs by Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, Mike Berry, Lonnie Donegan, Billy Fury, Gene Vincent, Tommy Steele. Oh, it’s a mighty long list. You can also thank Joe Meek for National treasure Sir Tom Jones, He was the first person to record Tom as a solo artist.
What is really notable about Meek though is that he invented many of the techniques that are still used today (albeit in a much more digital form). Overdubbing, sampling, using echo and reverb, distortion … there are loads. He was also the first producer to plug electric instrument directly into the mixing desk. Before then all the action was picked up on microphones strategically placed around the studio.
He did also once tell Brian Epstein not to bother signing The Beatles too. Telling him they were just another bunch of noise. So he wasn’t perfect. But I’m prepared to let that one go.
Mike Chapman
This guy was all over the seventies in the UK. The Aussie born really got going when he met Nicky Chinn
in 1970. Together with Mickie Most
and his RAK record label they wrote and produced hits for The Sweet
(Poppa Jo, Wig-Wam Bam, Block Buster, Ballroom Blitz), Suzi Quattro
(Can The Can, 48 Crash, Devil Gate Drive), Mud
(Tiger Feet, Dyna-mite), Smokie
(Living Next Door To Alice) and Racey
(Some Girls and Kitty
– the song that went on to become Mickey, a number one for Toni Basil in 1982). They were literally the Stock, Aitken and Waterman of the 70’s Pretty impressive so far but Mike Chapman was just warming up.
After parting with Nicky Chinn, Mike moved to the US and focused on production. His first big accolade? Making Blondie a household name. Parallel Lines
was released in 1978 and has sold over 20 million copies making it one of the most successful albums of the seventies. Picture This, Hanging on The Telephone, Sunday Girl, One Way or Another and Heart of Glass all came from that one album. He went on to produce the follow up, Eat To The Beat
in 1979, another platinum album with Dreaming, Union City Blue and Atomic being the big singles from it. In fact everything Blondie did until their split in 1983 was a Mike Chapman production.
While the Blondie thing was exploding, Chapman produced My Sharona
for The Knack (put that next to a Blondie song from that time and you can see the parallels) (see what I did there)? Other credits on his list include Ace of Base, Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, Huey Lewis and The News, and Altered Images.
Notable mentions
I could have included many more on my list. I didn’t talk about Tony Visconti, David Bowie’s long-time producer who worked on his first and last album as well as 11 others. He also produced for T Rex, Sparks, Boomtown Rats and Adam Ant. Oh, he was Mr Mary Hopkin too.
How about Rick Rubin, the very hairy creator of Def Jam recordings? Without him there may have been no Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Run-DMC or maybe even Hip-Hop! We can also thank him for albums by Tom Petty, Justin Timberlake and even Johnny Cash.
There are many great producers that go largely unnoticed but should never be forgotten. Without them, our little radio station would sound very different indeed.
About Paul Mumford
You can hear Paul Mumford every on Forest Radio Monday to Thursday from 6-8pm and for the Saturday Social, Saturday mornings from 9. Wanna pick one (or three)? Click here.
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