Sam Phillips

The producer is the least recognized component of rock music. In a certain sense, this is deserved: producers rarely author a band's songs or play their instruments (although they often write arrangements and additional parts), and a great many producers do little more than stand around hassling sound engineers to "make it sound like the Beatles." In fact, at least one of the people we included on this list, the cantankerous Steve Albini, actively refuses to be labeled a "producer." However, for every thousand big business players with huge egos and no recording expertise, there's a producer who has made deep and lasting contributions to the way rock music sounds. Some, producers, like Sam Phillips, are almost the reason that rock music even exists at all. A great producer is a kind of musical magician, mysteriously able to turn a good band into a great band and a great band into an amazing, earthshatteringly great band. Some producers can make what comes out of your stereo speakers sound immaculately beautiful, and others can make you forget the music is even coming out of stereo speakers at all and not originating from a stage or from inside your head. Below, we present an alphabetical list of our ten favorite rock producers. Honorable mentions go out especially to Brian Wilson (the Beach Boys), Willie Mitchell (Al Green), Steve Lillywhite (XTC, U2, the Pogues), and Quincy Jones (everything). Also, we felt like we should mention Robert John "Mutt" Lange. This rock mastermind may have done as much harm as he has good, but there's no denying the raw rock power of AC/DC's Back in Black, or the commercial clout of Shania Twain.

Steve Albini - These days, Steve Albini is music's last defense against crass, placeless, cheesy production. Big Black's founder and the prod...uh...engineer for tons of records by groups including the Pixies, Nirvana, the Breeders, Low, and the Dirty Three (as well as a good share of big business acts like Bush, Page and Plant, and Nine Inch Nails) is an outspoken proponent of analog technology and a dedicated foe of overcompression, plus he gets the best damn drum sounds out there.

Brian Eno - Brian Eno has often said that his instrument is the studio. Using that instrument, Eno invented ambient music, made substantial contributions to electronic and experimental music, and still found time to produce the best work of artists like David Bowie, the Talking Heads (who later said that after awhile they began feeling like "Brian Eno's backing band") and U2. He also heavily influenced Daniel Lanois, who went on to be a wildly successful producer in his own right, working with Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Bob Dylan.

Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff - Gamble and Huff (alongside their contemporary, Al Green producer Willie Mitchell) represent the apex of pop soul production. The creators of the Philly Soul style, Gamble and Huff, with Thom Bell, brought an incredibly warm, lush and sophisticated sound to hits by bands like the O'Jays, the Spinners, and Barbara Mason, and house band MSFB. Their urbane, lavish pop effortlessly exuded a feeling to which all soft R&B would later aspire.

Holland-Dozier-Holland - A precursor to Gamble and Huff, Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier worked for Berry Gordy's legendary Motown records. In addition to writing a stunning number of hits for Motown artists ("Where Did Our Love Go," "Nowhere to Run," and "Baby Love" among many, many others), the three produced signature Motown artists like the Supremes, the Four Tops, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the Isley Brothers and were central to the creation of the immortal Motown sound.

Glyn Johns - Glyn Johns is classic rock. He got his start as a tape operator for the Beatles before moving on the produce records by the Rolling Stones, The Who, the Faces, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, and the Steve Miller Band. Johns also engineered for Led Zeppelin, and for that alone I'll forgive him for enabling Desperado.

George Martin - Perhaps the most famous producer of all time. Also, perhaps, the best. Sir George Martin holds the most legitimate claim to being "The Fifth Beatle." When the Beatles were freaking out on acid saying "I want to sound as though I'm the Dalai Lama singing from the highest mountaintop!" (actual John Lennon quote), George Martin was there, in his white lab coat, calmly inventing flanging and breaking out the Leslie speaker. When the Beatles wanted some weird new instrument, George Martin would put down his tea and pick up the piccolo. And when John Lennon wanted to somehow put together two different versions of "Strawberry Fields Forever" in two different keys and at two different speeds, George Martin was somehow able to do it.

Lee "Scratch" Perry - The mad genius Lee Perry was an inventor of reggae as well as the most important contributor to the dub music that would prove massively influential to both electronica and hip hop. At his Black Ark studio, Perry wrenched from a young unknown Bob Marley the most powerful, spiritual work the reggae superstar would ever make. He also went on to on to work with artists as varied as the Clash and the Mad Professor.

Sam Phillips - Sam Phillips was the first rock and roll producer. In fact, at his independent Sun Records label Phillips just about invented rock and roll. For "Rocket 88," Phillips advised Jackie Brenton's guitarist to use an amp that had just fallen off the van and broken, creating the harsh, dirty guitar sound that graced what is often labeled the first rock and roll single. In Phillips' discovery of Elvis Presley, though, he changed music forever. Not content, he then went on to discover and record Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, and Howlin' Wolf among many others.

Phil Spector - The brilliant and neurotic Phil Spector was one of the most influential producers in rock. In his "wall of sound" production style, a constant blast of ecstatic instrumentation competed with his ebullient singers (often in girl groups like the Ronettes, the Crystals, and the Dixie Cups) to create miniature teenage operas, melodramatic and often transcendently joyous works of pop art. Spector went on to produce (and kind of ruin) the Beatles' swan song Let It Be before lending an able (and restrained) hand to the solo debuts of John Lennon and George Harrison.

Jerry Wexler - Jerry Wexler coined the term "Rhythm and Blues." As head of Atlantic Records, Wexler journeyed to Memphis's Stax Records' studio to record great R&B acts like Sam and Dave and Wilson Pickett. At FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Wexler produced Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" and brought out the superstar in Aretha Franklin. He later went on to record Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Dire Straits, whom he also helped sign (along with the B-52's and Gang of Four).