About John Simon

John Simon (born Norwalk, Connecticut, August 11, 1941) is an American music producer, composer, writer and performer. Recognized as one of the top record producers in the United States during the late '60s and the 1970s, Simon produced numerous classic albums that continue to sell more than 30 years later, including The Band's Music from Big Pink, The Band, and The Last Waltz, Cheap Thrills by Big Brother & the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel, Songs of Leonard Cohen by Leonard Cohen, and The Child Is Father to the Man by Blood, Sweat & Tears. He began playing piano when he was four. By the time he graduated from high-school, he was already leading and writing for several bands and had composed two original musicals. At Princeton University he continued his role as a bandleader, taking a band to the finals of the 1st Georgetown Intercollegiate Jazz Festival. After Princeton, at Columbia Records, his work included Point of Order, an LP of the notorious Senate hearings conducted by rabid anti-Communist, Senator Joseph McCarthy and The Medium Is the Massage inspired by the writings of media guru, Marshall McLuhan. In 1966, he arranged and produced Red Rubber Ball by The Cyrkle. The song, co-written by Paul Simon (no relation) sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. With the success of Red Rubber Ball, Simon was assigned other pop music artists like Frankie Yankovic, America's Polka King and jazzman, Charles Lloyd. The first production for which he also wrote extensive arrangements was Songs of Leonard Cohen, Cohen's debut album, followed by the Simon and Garfunkel album, Bookends and the debut album of Blood, Sweat and Tears. After leaving Columbia, Simon produced Gordon Lightfoot. After that, Janis Joplin and her band, Big Brother And The Holding. While producing an album for The Electric Flag, he met blues master, Taj Mahal, beginning a musical association which continues to the present. His name is often linked with The Band with whom he was very closely associated. The albums he produced with them, Music From Big Pink, The Band and The Last Waltz stand as precursors to the genre later labeled Americana. He was also the Music Director for The Last Waltz concert. Other albums of note from that period were with John Hartford, Steve Forbert, David Sanborn, Mama Cass, Michael Franks, Seals and Crofts and the influential jazz arranger, Gil Evans. In the Eighties, Simon composed the score for the film, Last Summer, wrote two ballet scores for the choreographer, Twyla Tharp and composed circus music for aerialist Philip Petit (after his solo walk between the World Trade Towers). He was the Music Supervisor for a Broadway venture called Rock & Roll! The First 5,000 Years and produced the Original Cast Album of The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. At one point, Paul Simon urged John Simon to be a singer-songwriter in his own right. Consequently, in the early Seventies, he recorded two albums for Warner Brothers, John Simon's Album and Journey. Then, fifteen years later, saw the first of four albums for labels in Japan, the first of which, Out On The Street, was released in the U.S. by Vanguard. Simon and wife, C.C. Loveheart, wrote and performed a cabaret act called Alone Together For The First Time Again and, more recently, co-authored a popular play, Jackass Flats, which had its professional premiere in June of 2011. A self-described compulsive musician. Simon continues to be active. These days he performs his own material in concerts on rare occasions but plays piano weekly with his jazz trio in his hometown near Woodstock, NY.