The EditoriaList: Top Nine Rock Stars Turned Producer

posted in: Features • Rock

A lot of musicians produce their own music, but there is a smaller field of those who can produce other artists AND are successful at it. Here’s a list of nine artists better known (in most cases) for their own musical efforts but who have significant bodies of work as producers. This is not to say that they are the “best” or that they are listed in order of greatness. The list is ordered according to a mixed assessment of the worthiness of the things they’ve produced and the amount of producing they’ve done.

9. Phil Collins

Phil Collins, who has had massive success as a solo artist and as a member of Genesis, produced hits for Frida (ex-ABBA), Howard Jones and Philip Bailey, among others. He then presided over the loosest use of the term comeback, when he helped Eric Clapton score big with Behind the Sun (1985) and August (1986). Weeeeeeeak.

8. Jack White

Seems like Jack White has put touring on the back burner in favor of his newfound music mogul-dom. Before he really ramped up work on his Third Man Records label, store, mobile unit and future empire, White branched out from The White Stripes to produce 2001’s Lack of Communication by The Von Bondies (whose lead singer would later be punched many times in the face by White) and Loretta Lynn’s 2004 LP Van Lear Rose. He has produced most of his own studio projects, including The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather and Another Way To Die, the theme to the Bond film Quantum of Solace, with Alicia Keys. White produces sessions for his own Third Man Records and has worked with Wanda Jackson, now ex-wife Karen Elson, The Black Belles and of course, Stephen Colbert.

7. Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello has mostly refrained from producing his own albums, with a few exceptions, but made early forays into producing other artists starting in 1977, working on the debut album by The Specials, Squeeze’s East Side Story, and The Pogues Rum Sodomy & the Lash.

6. Ric Ocasek

The strange-looking frontman of The Cars was made famous by a string of hits that were in heavy rotation on MTV and by his unlikely marriage to supermodel Paulina Porizkova. In the 1990s, Ocasek morphed into a hit-making producer, working on the debut album by Weezer, as well as recordings by Nada Surf, No Doubt, Guided by Voices and Bad Religion.

5. Al Kooper

Few artists have had as expansive a reach and influence in the music business as Al Kooper. From writing Gary Lewis’ hit This Diamond Ring to conning his way onto Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone to masterminding the legendary Super Session, to forming Blood, Sweat & Tears, Kooper had cemented his place in music history even before producing The Tubes debut and blockbuster albums by Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others.

4. Nick Lowe

At this point, Lowe is probably more famous as Elvis Costello’s producer than for his solo or Rockpile (with Dave Edmunds) work, but he was a pop star in his own right for a time, hitting the charts with Cruel to Be Kind, I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass and I Knew the Bride. Lowe produced Costello’s first five classic albums (four of them Gold or Platnum albums) and wrote the hit (What’s So Funny ˜Bout) Peace Love and Understanding. As in-house producer for Stiff Records, he produced the majority of their early roster of artists, including Graham Parker and The Damned.

3. Butch Vig

Before forming Garbage (he is/was the drummer and producer), Butch Vig produced Nirvana’s game-changing LP Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish and Siamese Dream, and dozens more, including albums by Sonic Youth, Freedy Johnston, Foo Fighters, Kildozer, Urge Overkill, L7, Soul Asylum, The Subways and Muse.

2. Jeff Lynne

Lynne was always at the helm of his band ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), which, in some ways, was an exercise in production and studio magic. His devotion to high-fidelity pop music led to a collaboration with George Harrison (Cloud Nine), which led to him being a member and producer of The Travelling Wilburys, which in turn led to his work on records by Tom Petty and Roy Orbison, and culminating in his work on the new Beatles tracks that were released as part of the Anthology series. Smash hits, every single one. Here he is discussing ELO’s hit “Livin’ Thing”:

1. Todd Rundgren

Known for his hits Hello It’s Me, I Saw the Light and Bang the Drum All Day, Todd Rundgren went on to produce an impressive array of hit albums by other artists before finding fame again in the early ’90s as “not Liv Tyler’s father”. Rundgren engineered The Band’s Stage Fright, before producing Meat Loaf’s mega-hit Bat Out of Hell, as well as landmark records by Badfinger, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, and The Tubes (they had good taste in producers, it seems).