NEW YORK — Sheldon “Shel” Talmy, a Chicago-born music producer and arranger who worked 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 announced that he died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. The cause was complications from a stroke.
Born in Chicago and raised Jewish, Talmy lived in Los Angeles as a teenager, and graduated from Fairfax High School there.
He was a recording engineer in his mid-20s when he visited London for a planned vacation and ended up in the midst of the emerging 1960s British rock music scene.
As one of the rare independent producers of the time, he signed up The Kinks and oversaw many of their biggest hits during the mid-’60s, from the raw breakthrough single “You ReallyThe Got Me” to the polished satire of “A Well Respected Man” and “Dedicated Follower of Fashion.”
Talmy would then oversee the rise of another British act, The Who, producing such landmarks as “My Generation,” featuring Keith Moon’s explosive drumming and Roger Daltrey’s stuttering vocals, and “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” an early experiment in guitar feedback.
Talmy’s other British hits included Chad & Jeremy’s “A Summer Song,” The Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” and Manfred Mann’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.” He also worked on some of the first recordings featuring Bowie, who was known as Davy Jones at the time, and used a teenaged Jimmy Page as a session guitarist for The Kinks.
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