Richie Zito (born August 21, 1952) is an American songwriter, composer and record producer from Los Angeles. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Zito has experienced success as a prolific session

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wr ...

, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings, including work with

Joe Cocker John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...

, White Lion,

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, Mr. Big, Neil Sedaka,

Yvonne Elliman Yvonne Marianne Elliman (born December 29, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress who performed for four years in the first cast of the stage musical ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. She scored a number of hits in the 1970s and achieved ...

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, Art Garfunkel,

Leo Sayer Gerard Hugh "Leo" Sayer (born 21 May 1948) is an English-Australian singer and songwriter whose singing career has spanned five decades. He has been an Australian citizen and resident since 2009. Sayer launched his career in the United Kingdom ...

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, Marc Tanner,

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, The Motels, as well as

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, Juliet Simms,

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and Prism. In addition to this, Zito has produced 38 singles that have been featured in the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. He was named

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

's Producer of the Year in 1990. Zito also co-composed the score for the 1986 Japanese anime film '' Project A-ko'' with Joey Carbone. Zito's production style was described as "panoramic and cosmic" by Doug Stone of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

regarding his work with

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on their 1988 album ''

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''.

Musical career

1970s

Zito was born in Brooklyn, NY, but moved to California for better opportunities in his music career. In 1973, he recorded and toured with Bobby Hatfield of

The Righteous Brothers The Righteous Brothers are an American musical duo originally formed by Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield but now comprising Medley and Bucky Heard. Medley formed the group with Hatfield in 1963. They had first performed together in 1962 in the Lo ...

. Later that year, Zito formed a band with

Rick James James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in ...

, releasing the single "My Mama", a big hit in Europe. In 1974, Zito began working with Neil Sedaka, who had signed with

's Rocket Records. Zito recorded, toured and made numerous TV appearances with Sedaka during the biggest comeback of the decade. The 1970s continued with Zito becoming one of the most in-demand session guitarists in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, playing on songs such as Blondie's '' Call Me''.

1980s

In 1980, Zito joined Elton John's backing band, playing on the albums '' 21 at 33'', ''The Fox'', and '' Jump Up!''. He also toured extensively with John, highlighted by performing with him in front of 450,000 People at a Concert in Central Park. Zito then began working closely with producer

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the " Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance music. His work with synthesizers had ...

, playing on some of the most successful movie soundtracks of the era. Zito worked extensively on the soundtrack for ''Scarface'', which saw him play all the guitars, besides arranging and co-writing a number of the songs. He also played guitar on songs for other artists' albums including

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

's '' Take My Breath Away'',

Irene Cara Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress of Black, Puerto Rican and Cuban descent. Cara rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film '' Fame'', and f ...

's '' Flashdance... What a Feeling'', and Glenn Frey's '' The Heat Is On'' during this period.

Notable studio albums produced or co-produced by Zito

References

External links