Ron Haffkine, a Grammy-winning document producer and supervisor recognized for his work with Dr. Hook & the Drugs Present, has died. He was 84.
Haffkine died Sunday at his house in Mexico after a short bout with leukemia and kidney failure, his pal of fifty years, music govt Joel Diamond, advised The Hollywood Reporter.
“Ron at all times had an uncanny knack of listening to a success tune in its rawest stage and the uncommon expertise to couple it with one of the best musicians after which high it off with a meticulous efficiency by the artist,” Diamond famous.
Haffkine was instrumental in getting Dr. Hook signed by Clive Davis at Columbia Data within the Nineteen Seventies, and the band led by Dennis Locorriere, George Cummings, the eyepatch-wearing Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis would compile a string of hits that included “Sylvia’s Mom,” “Cowl of the Rolling Stone,” “Sharing the Night time Collectively,” “When You’re in Love With a Stunning Lady,” “Attractive Eyes,” “Child Makes Her Blue Denims Discuss” and “A Little Bit Extra.”
Haffkine produced 10 Dr. Hook studio albums and two reside albums and labored with the likes of Waylon Jennings, Lou Rawls, Mac Davis and Helen Reddy, too.
Haffkine additionally typically collaborated with singer, songwriter and poet Shel Silverstein. He received a Grammy Award in 1985 for producing Silverstein’s “The place the Sidewalk Ends” and obtained one other Grammy nom two years later for his work on one other Silverstein youngsters’s album, “A Mild within the Attic.”
Born in New York on Dec. 13, 1938, Haffkine contracted polio when he was 12, leaving him paralyzed for 2 years. Later, he and Silverstein turned associates in Greenwich Village.
Silverstein requested him to supply music he had written for the movies Ned Kelly (1970), starring Mick Jagger, and Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying These Horrible Issues About Me? (1971), starring Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Harris.
Haffkine really helpful that Dr. Hook be utilized in Harry Kellerman, however for that to occur, the New Jersey band needed to have a document deal. After the musicians did an impromptu reside showcase in Davis’ workplace and had been signed, Dr. Hook carried out the Silverstein-written songs “Bunky and Lucille” and “Final Morning” within the film.
Haffkine additionally produced Silverstein’s 1972 music comedy album Freakin’ on the Freakers’ Ball, with Dr. Hook dealing with the title observe, and recorded the quirky Silverstein tune “Do You Need to Boogie or Do You Don’t” that yr as properly.
Haffkine and his spouse of 37 years, Sydney, moved to Mexico a number of years in the past. She survives him.
