The music industry is in mourning. Richard Perry, American music producer who worked with stars such as Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart and Barbra Streisand, died in a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 82 in the early hours of Tuesday, December 24, after suffered cardiac arrest, her friend Daphna Kastner said.
“He was generous, funny, kind and made the world a better place. The world is a little less kind without him here. But he is a little sweeter in heaven,” said the actress about the man who was her son’s godfather.
Born in New York in 1942, he began his career as a producer in the late 1960s and is one of the few to have had multiple hits on the pop, R&B, and music charts. dance or country.
Many singing stars have turned to him for a variety of reasons, including trying to update their sound, as was the case with Barbra Streisand, or to revive their careers, as with Fats Domino. “Richard had a knack for matching the right song to the right artist,” Barbra Streisand wrote in her 2023 memoir, “My Name is Barbra.”
In the 1970s, Richard Perry collaborated with legendary artists like Ringo Starr, Rod Steward, Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Diana Ross and many others. In 1973, he produced “Ringo”, Ringo Starr's third solo studio album which reached number two on the Billboard charts and sold over a million copies. In the 1980s, he also collaborated with the Pointer Sisters, with whom he released “I'm So Excited”, and Julio Iglesias.
Richard Perry has produced numerous platinum and gold records throughout his career and was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, before receiving a Grammy Trustees Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2015. He was also named “Producer of the Year” in 1973 by Rolling Stone magazine.
He was also known for being in a relationship with the famous actress Jane Fonda from 2009 to 2017.
