Bradley Aaron Shapiro (August 15, 1938 — October 3, 2024) was an American musician, songwriter and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

, whose credits have included work with

Wilson Pickett Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter. A major figure in the development of soul music, Pickett recorded more than 50 songs that made the US R&B charts, many of which crossed over to the '' ...

Millie Jackson Mildred Virginia Jackson (born July 15, 1944) is an American R&B and soul recording artist. Beginning her career in the early 1960s, three of Jackson's albums have been certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 copies sold. Jackson's songs o ...

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

, and the J. Geils Band. Shapiro was born in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

. In the late 1950s, he played

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

in a local band, the Redcoats, in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, whose singer was

Steve Alaimo Stephen Charles Alaimo (December 6, 1939 – November 30, 2024) was an American singer who was a teen idol in the early 1960s. He later became a record producer and label owner, but he is perhaps best known for hosting and co-producing Dick Clar ...

. After Alaimo launched a solo career, the band split up, but Shapiro remained involved in the music business and received his first songwriting credit in 1965 on "I Can't See Him Again" by the Twans, co-written with

Henry Stone Henry Stone (June 3, 1921 – August 7, 2014), born Henry David Epstein, was an American record company executive and producer whose career spanned the era from R&B in the early 1950s through the disco boom of the 1970s to the 2010s. He was be ...

. In 1967, his song "Girl I Got News For You", co-written with Bobby Puccetti and co-produced by Shapiro and Alaimo, was recorded by Benny Latimore, and over the next few years his songs were recorded by a number of artists on T.K. labels in Miami, including

Betty Wright Bessie Regina Norris (December 21, 1953 – May 10, 2020), better known by her stage name Betty Wright, was an American soul music, soul and Rhythm and blues, R&B singer, songwriter and background vocalist. Beginning her professional career ...

and Clarence Reid. He often wrote and co-produced with Alaimo. Brad Shapiro credits at Discogs.com
Retrieved 14 February 2014 In 1970, he and Dave Crawford began working together at

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

and co-produced the debut album by

The J. Geils Band The J. Geils Band (formerly known as The J. Geils Blues Band) was an American rock band formed in 1967, in Worcester, Massachusetts, under the leadership of guitarist John "J." Geils. The original band members included vocalist Peter Wolf, h ...

. The following year, he and Crawford co-produced Wilson Pickett's "

Don't Knock My Love "Don't Knock My Love" is a hit song performed by R&B singer Wilson Pickett and written by Pickett with Brad Shapiro. Released in the spring of 1971 from the album of the same title, it spent a week at number-one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, ''Bi ...

" in Muscle Shoals, which Shapiro co-wrote with the singer. The record reached no.1 on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

. Shapiro continued to work with Pickett, as well as with

Johnny Adams Laten John Adams Jr. (January 5, 1932 – September 14, 1998), was an American blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary" for the multi-octave range of his singing voice, his swooping vocal mannerisms and falsetto. His biggest ...

Sam & Dave Sam & Dave were an American soul and R&B duo who performed together from 1961 until 1981. The tenor (higher) voice was Sam Moore (1935–2025) and the baritone/tenor (lower) voice was Dave Prater (1937–1988). Nicknamed "Double Dynamite", " ...

Bettye LaVette Bettye LaVette (born Betty Jo Haskins, January 29, 1946) is an American soul singer who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, when her album '' I've Got My Own Hell to Raise'' was released to widespre ...

and others for Atlantic. Shapiro then became involved with producing the leading artists on the New York–based Spring Records, including Joe Simon, Garland Green and

. The most successful collaboration was with Jackson; the two co-produced and co-wrote several tracks on her gold albums '' Caught Up'' (1974) and '' Still Caught Up'' (1975). He went on to work with Millie Jackson for some years on a series of albums and major R&B hits until the Spring label closed in the mid-1980s. In the mid-1970s, he co-founded the Kayvette record label, which issued records by Jackie Moore, Otis Clay, and the Facts of Life (formerly The Gospel Truth). Kayvette Album Discography
Retrieved 14 February 2014 Shapiro produced James Brown's albums '' The Original Disco Man'' in 1979 and ''People'' in 1980. Shapiro died in

Lebanon, Tennessee Lebanon ( ) is the county seat of Wilson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 38,431 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in Middle Tennessee, approximately east of downtown Nashville. Lebanon is part of the Nashville Metro ...

References

External links

ttps://www.sellarsfh.com/obituaries/Brad-Shapiro?obId=33340820
Songwriting credits at BMI

Credits at Allmusic.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Brad 1938 births American record producers