Only one newspaper, The Independent, has so far run an obituary for the former Atlantic Records producer Joel Dorn, who died last month.
While I didn’t recognise his name, it transpires that I’m certainly a fan of his work – among others, he produced Roberta Flack’s magnum opus, Killing Me Softly With His Song, and her cover of Ewan MacColl’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. For this alone, he deserves our respect.
For the pay-off line to Spencer Leigh’s obituary, he deserves our adoration:
He despaired of the music industry’s complaints about downloading and the economy. “Let me tell you something,” he said to one reporter. “You make a record tomorrow that makes you feel like a Marvin Gaye record did 30 years ago, I don’t give a fuck how bad the economy is: people will buy that record.”
I was going to nominate Killing Me Softly for SMIP status about 3 months ago. And Minitrue informs me of the death of its producer. Well well.