Barbra Streisand has led tributes to late music legend, Richard Perry.
The prolific producer died from a heart attack at a hospital in Los Angeles on 24 December. He was 82.
At the time of his passing, Perry had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Taking to Instagram on Christmas Day, Streisand honoured her frequent collaborator with an emotional message.
“Richard had an uncanny ability to pick the hits, and most important to me, a wonderful sense of humor,” she wrote. “We had such fun in the studio… and we became really good life-long friends.”
Streisand worked with Perry on two albums, 1971’s Stoney End and Barbra Joan Streisand.
The Hollywood icon went on to note that the producer had encouraged her to record more contemporary songs over the course of her career.
“It was exciting to explore that kind of material with him. By the way, Richard thought Laura Nyro’s Stoney End would be a hit for me, and I thought he was nuts! I was so happy to be proven wrong!” the singer continued. “He was a truly special person and I’m so grateful our paths crossed. Rest in musical peace, Richard.”
Perry rose to fame in the late ’60s and early ’70s, with him going to work with artists such as Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Diana Ross, Leo Sayer, Ringo Starr, and Rod Stewart.
Among the hits he produced were Simon’s You’re So Vain, Sayer’s When I Need You, Burt Cummings’s Stand Tall, and Harry Nilsson’s Without You.
Meanwhile, Stewart remembered his “dear buddy” in his own post.
“They say in life a man is lucky if he can count his true friends on one hand, and you were certainly one of them. Now I’ve lost you, and I’m devastated. We played and worked so closely together for so many years, creating some of the most memorable music together.”
Elsewhere, songwriter Diane Warren explained that she used to call Perry “professor”.
“Back in the day, he would grade my lyric sheets when he would listen to my songs. He produced the first big hit I ever had (1985 DeBarge song), The Rhythm of the Night. Richard Perry was a producer’s producer, who made records that will still sound as great as the day they came out in a hundred years. Richard knew it all started with the song,” she added.
Previously, Perry dated Jane Fonda from 2009 until 2017 and was briefly married to actress Rebecca Broussard in the late ’80s.
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