Shel Talmy, a Chicago-born music producer and arranger who labored on such British punk classics as The Who’s “My Generation” and The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” helped oversee hits by Manfred Mann and the duo Chad & Jeremy and was an early backer of David Bowie, has died. He was 87.
Talmy’s publicist introduced that he died Wednesday at his residence in Los Angeles. The trigger was problems from a stroke.
Talmy was a recording engineer in his mid-20s when he visited London for a deliberate trip and ended up within the midst of the rising 1960s British rock music scene. As one of many uncommon impartial producers of the time, he signed up The Kinks and oversaw lots of their largest hits throughout the mid-’60s, from the uncooked breakthrough single “You Really Got Me” to the polished satire of “A Well Respected Man” and “Dedicated Follower of Fashion.”
Talmy would then oversee the rise of one other British act, The Who, producing such landmarks as “My Generation,” that includes Keith Moon’s explosive drumming and Roger Daltrey’s stuttering vocals, and “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” an early experiment in guitar suggestions.
Talmy’s different British hits included Chad & Jeremy’s “A Summer Song,” The Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” and Manfred Mann’s cowl of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.” He additionally labored on a few of the first recordings that includes Bowie, who was often known as Davy Jones at the time, and used a teen-aged Jimmy Web page as a session guitarist for The Kinks.
His post-1960s credit embody tasks with Vicki Brown, Band of Pleasure and The Damned.
Talmy is survived by his spouse, Jan Talmy, brother Leonard Talmy, daughter Jonna Sargeant and granddaughter Shay Berg.
