I revere producers as much as musicians and songwriters. I was dimly aware of producers, starting with the mysterious “produced by Bones Howe” in big letters on the back of some record… I thought it was the Carpenters but now I can’t find it. What really piqued my interest was Chic’s in-your-face credit on most of their early albums:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Composed, produced, arranged, conducted, and performed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards for the CHIC Organization, Ltd.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
which lead me to follow all the records that Nile and ‘Nard produced. It’s a joy to revisit a classic song, check the credits, and realize “Wait, that’s yet another great song produced by…” such as unheralded Alan Tarney<\/a> (who liked his own song “Once in a While” so much he produced it on three<\/a> different<\/a> records<\/a>) or the almighty Arif Mardin<\/a>. Then you can lose yourself in Wikipedia and Discogs finding all their production credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so to Trevor Horn, the bass player, singer, video (killed the radio) star, and maximalist producer. As a producer he’s probably most famous for his work with Frankie Goes to Hollywood<\/a> (1984 strikes again<\/a>!), and my favorite, his spectacular production for ABC’s The Lexicon of Love<\/a> (when producer full of ideas meets hungry band really going for it, and the magic happens). The guitars on the latter sound 10 feet tall on a great stereo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there’s a lot of prehistory to Trevor Horn. Listening to the deluxe reissue of the legendary Dusty in Memphis<\/a> by the great British pop-soul singer Dusty Springfield reminded me of her unexpectedly solid dance single that I bought on vinyl years ago… turns out it was written by Trevor Horn, his partner in Buggles Geoff Downes, and Bruce Woolley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n