Richard Perry

Richard Perry (June 18, 1942 – December 24, 2024) was an American record producer and Broadway performer born in Brooklyn, New York City, the eldest of four sons of Mack Perry and Sylvia Perry (née Haykin). His parents were music teachers who operated a business selling musical instruments to schools. Perry had Jewish ancestry and received classical training on piano and oboe from an early age, later expanding his instrumental skills to include guitar, bass, and drums. At age 12, in 1955, he attended one of Alan Freed's live rock shows at the Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn, where he encountered Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly and met them backstage.

During his time at Brooklyn's Poly Prep Country Day School, Perry sang bass in a doo-wop group called the Legends alongside three fellow students. In the early 1960s the group signed to Coral Records under the name the Escorts, recording seven singles between 1962 and 1963. Perry subsequently earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan in 1964, after which he moved into songwriting and acting while working in the marketing division of Kama Sutra Records, collaborating with Kenny Vance. He formed a production company in New York called Cloud Nine before relocating to Los Angeles in 1967. The following year he joined Warner Bros. as a staff producer, where he produced God Bless Tiny Tim, the debut album of Reprise Records artist Tiny Tim, which reached number seven on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.

Perry went freelance around 1970 and quickly established himself as one of the most prominent producers in popular music. His first independent production was Barbra Streisand's million-selling album Stoney End. Over the following decade he produced albums for Harry Nilsson, including Nilsson Schmilsson — which contained the number-one single "Without You" — and Son of Schmilsson, as well as records for Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Diana Ross, Martha Reeves, the Manhattan Transfer, Leo Sayer, and Andy Williams. He also produced the first three albums by Fanny: Fanny (1970), Charity Ball (1971), and Fanny Hill (1972), with Charity Ball featuring a top-40 title track. In 1972 he produced Simon's hit single "You're So Vain," and in 1973 he produced Ringo, the solo album by former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, which featured contributions from the other three ex-Beatles and reached number two on the Pop Albums chart. By 1982 Perry had accumulated more than twelve Gold records, four of which had gone Platinum.

In 1974, Perry appeared on Broadway in Jule's Friends at the Palace Theatre. That same period also saw him take on an acting role in film: in 1978 he played the part of a record producer in American Hot Wax, a film based on the life of disc jockey Alan Freed.

Also in 1978, Perry launched Planet Records, an independent label he ran for six years until its sale to RCA Records in 1983. The label's debut release was Energy by the Pointer Sisters, and Perry produced a string of dance hits for the group, including "Fire," "I'm So Excited," and "Neutron Dance." Other acts on the Planet roster during his tenure included Billy Thermal, Bates Motel, the Plimsouls, the Cretones, Bill Medley, and Sue Saad and the Next. Following the label's sale, Perry continued producing the Pointer Sisters as an independent and worked with artists including Streisand, Donna Summer, Julio Iglesias, Neil Diamond, and Randy Travis. Later in the 1980s he devoted time to the project Rock, Rhythm & Blues (1989), which featured contemporary artists such as Elton John, Rick James, and Chaka Khan performing classic rock songs from the 1950s and early 1960s.

In the 1990s and 2000s Perry worked with Ray Charles on My World (1993), which reached number 145 on the Billboard 200. He co-produced the first three volumes of Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook series, including It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook. In 2004 he reunited with Carly Simon, resulting in Moonlight Serenade (2005), which reached number seven on the Billboard 200 and was also a top Internet download. In 2006 he collaborated again with Art Garfunkel, receiving both producer and singing credits on Some Enchanted Evening (2007). His final listed production credit was the cast recording of the 2011 Broadway production of Baby It's You!

Perry was married twice, both marriages ending in divorce. He married Linda Goldner in the 1970s and was married to actress Rebecca Broussard from 1987 to 1988. From 2009 to 2017 he was in a relationship with Jane Fonda, and the two shared a home in Beverly Hills for eight years. Perry died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Los Angeles on December 24, 2024, at the age of 82. At the time of his death he had also been living with Parkinson's disease, which had caused him to lose his ability to speak.