#102: Rick Chertoff: The Producer Behind Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne & Decades of Hit Records

About this episode

John and Stewart interview producer Rick Chertoff about his career in the music industry and his work with various artists.

In this episode John and Stewart sit down for a chat with friend and mentor Rick Chertoff. Rick is a Producer and songwriter whose career started in A&R for Clive Davis's newly minted Arista records in 1974. From there, he went on to be senior VP of A&R at Columbia records, started his own Blue Gorilla record Label at Polygram, and all the while produced songs and albums for Cyndi Lauper, The Band, Joan Osborne, Sophie B Hawkins, and many others. In this interview Rick discusses his path through the music industry, gets in depth about the writing and recording of Cyndi Lauper's smash first album She's So Unusual, and shares behind the scenes stories from a career filled with hit records.

People in this episode

Hosts: John Agnello, Stewart Lerman

Guest: Rick Chertoff

Topics covered

• music production
• hit records
• music industry
• songwriting
• artist development

Keywords

• Rick Chertoff
• Cyndi Lauper
• Joan Osborne
• music producer
• A&R

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Clive Davis, Arista records, Columbia records, Blue Gorilla, Polygram

Books & works: She's So Unusual

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