Jimmy Ienner ( ; born ) is an American music producer, best known for producing albums for such artists as
Bay City Rollers
The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity, as a band in the 1970s. One of many 70s acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles", they were called the "tartan teen sensations fro ...
,
The Raspberries and
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...
.
Biography
He went to
Stamford (Connecticut) High School and graduated in 1963. He grew up in the Cove section of Stamford and while still in high school, Ienner formed and sang with the Barons. They charted with a tune titled "Pledge of a Fool" on the Epic label.
Ienner and his brother
Don Ienner founded the publishing house C.A.M. U.S.A., which operated from 1972 to 1977. C.A.M. U.S.A. was a publishing, management and production company which represented such artists as American Asfault, Three Dog Night,
Grand Funk Railroad
Grand Funk Railroad (often shortened to Grand Funk) is an American rock band formed in Flint, Michigan, in 1969 by Mark Farner (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica), Don Brewer (drums, vocals) and Mel Schacher (bass). The band achieved pea ...
,
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is an American jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. BS&T has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and ...
,
Air Supply
Air Supply is an Australian soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975, consisting of Englishman Graham Russell (vocals, guitar) and Australian Russell Hitchcock (vocals). With record sales of 100 million worldwide, they had a suc ...
,
Raspberries
The raspberry is the edible fruit of several plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the Rosaceae, rose family, most of which are in the subgenus ''Rubus#Modern classification, Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Ras ...
, and
Eric Carmen
Eric Howard Carmen (August 11, 1949 – March 2024) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was the lead vocalist of the Raspberries, with whom he recorded the hit " Go All the Way" and four albums. He embarked on a so ...
. Records that Ienner was involved with usually bear his distinctive logo next to his name—a widely smiling pair of lips.
Jimmy Ienner is a producer, advisor, publisher and consultant. His early work included the New York City psychedelic rock band January Tyme. Credited as album co-ordinator of their first and only album 'First Time from Memphis', recorded in 1969, released in 1970, now a cult collectors item, still circulating and being re-released. He was the key music producer for the 1987 film ''
Dirty Dancing
''Dirty Dancing'' is a 1987 American romance film, romantic drama film, drama Dance in film, dance film written by Eleanor Bergstein, produced by Linda Gottlieb, and directed by Emile Ardolino. Starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, it tel ...
'' and co-executive produced the soundtrack with Bob Feiden. The film was shot to oldies songs from the personal collection of
Eleanor Bergstein, the film's writer and producer. Ienner obtained licenses for the songs in her collection, chose other artists, and also enlisted star
Patrick Swayze
Patrick Wayne Swayze ( ; August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and dancer. Known for his romantic, tough, and comedic roles in blockbusters and cult films, Swayze was nominated for three Golden Glob ...
to sing "
She's Like the Wind". Swayze had written the song a few years earlier with
Stacy Widelitz, originally intending for it to be used in the 1984 film ''
Grandview, U.S.A.'' with
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and children's author. Known for List of Jamie Lee Curtis performances, her performances in the horror and slasher film, slasher genres, she is regarded as a scream qu ...
and
C. Thomas Howell. Ienner was also executive producer for the ''
Dirty Dancing
''Dirty Dancing'' is a 1987 American romance film, romantic drama film, drama Dance in film, dance film written by Eleanor Bergstein, produced by Linda Gottlieb, and directed by Emile Ardolino. Starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, it tel ...
'' soundtrack album with the film's music. The film's popularity caught the producers by surprise, and the album had one million copies on back order before a single had even been released. The album spent 18 weeks at number 1 on the
''Billboard'' 200 album sales charts and went platinum eleven times, selling more than 39 million copies worldwide.
It spawned a follow-up album in February 1988, entitled ''More Dirty Dancing'', which also went multi-platinum, selling 32 million copies worldwide.
Ienner also worked on music for
Kiss
A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...
and
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
.
He has been awarded 85 gold and platinum albums,
multiple
Grammys
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
and two
Oscars
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...
, including one for the ''Dirty Dancing'' soundtrack, which remains one of the top selling albums of all time. He also worked on the soundtrack albums for ''The Big Chill'', ''White Men Can't Jump'', and ''
Sister Act
''Sister Act'' is a 1992 American musical crime comedy film directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Paul Rudnick (billed as Joseph Howard). It stars Whoopi Goldberg as a lounge singer forced to hide in a convent after being placed in a witn ...
''.
Ienner was inducted into the Stamford High School Wall of Fame in 1998. He has a son, Jimmy Ienner Jr. and two daughters; Lisa and Tara.
References
;Other sources
* ''Dirty Dancing'',
E! True Hollywood Story, first aired September 3, 2000
* http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=21853&string=Omarion
External links
*
Jimmy Ienner Jr.'s website* https://archive.today/20130104101753/http://www.music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16141785&menu=credits&startingItem=11
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ienner, Jimmy
Living people
American record producers
1940s births
American music industry executives
Stamford High School (Stamford, Connecticut) alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)