Producer Richard Perry’s 20 Biggest Billboard Hits

We lost one of the greats this week, when producer Richard Perry died at age 82. Like such contemporary producers as Jack Antonoff, Finneas, Daniel Nigro and Greg Kurstin, Perry was almost as famous as the artists he worked with (at least among pop music obsessives).

Perry never won a Grammy in competition, but he did receive a Trustees Award from the Recording Academy in 2015. (That’s the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award for non-performers.) The Grammys didn’t have a producer of the year, non-classical category yet in 1974, when Perry might very well have won it. (The category was introduced the following year.)

Perry was nominated in that category in both 1977 and 1978. He was nominated in other marquee Grammy categories as well – record of the year for both Nilsson’s “Without You” and Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” and album of the year for Nilsson Schmilssson.

Perry had producer credits on top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 spanning more than 40 years, from novelty performer Tiny Tim’s God Bless Tiny Tim in 1968 (hey, you got to start somewhere!) to Rod Stewart’s Fly Me to the Moon… The Great American Songbook Volume V in 2010.

Richard Perry’s Biggest Billboard Hits chart is based on actual performance of titles that he produced on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 (through Dec. 28, 2024). Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.