Elton Producer Gus Dudgeon Dies

Producer Gus Dudgeon, who worked on recordings by Elton John, David Bowie, XTC and numerous others, died in a car accident on July 21st near Reading in western England; he was fifty-nine. Dudgeon's wife, Sheila, was also killed.

Dudgeon began his career in the mid-Sixties working at Decca Records serving as house engineer. He worked on recordings by the Small Faces, Them, as well as John Mayall's classic Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton and the Zombies hit "She's Not There."

At the end of the decade, he turned to producing, recording David Bowie's Space Oddity in 1969. That same year, he was enlisted to work with an unheard of pianist/songwriter named Elton John. A year later, John's self-titled album was released, marking the beginning of a productive stretch for the two. Dudgeon worked the boards for John's classic Seventies output, including Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water, Honky Chateau, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

After parting ways with John (the two would reunite for a handful of albums in the mid-Eighties), Dudgeon worked with Joan Armatrading and Chris Rea, among a small handful of others in the late-Seventies and through the Eighties. In the Nineties, Dudgeon produced XTC's Nonsuch and oversaw the reissue of John's classic Seventies catalog.

"I am devastated by the tragic news," John said. "He was an incredibly talented producer and a very dear friend for many years. I will miss him terribly."

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Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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