Biography
Lou Reizner never attained the same public profile as a record producer that Phil Spector, Shel Talmy, or Larry Page enjoyed, yet during the early and middle years of the 1970s he displayed a pronounced aptitude for ambitious, large-scale projects and for multimedia ventures that placed him ten or twenty years ahead of most peers. Born in Chicago, Reizner launched his career in the United States and by the mid-1960s had joined Mercury Records, where his production of Dick Campbell’s debut album involved recruiting many of the musicians then working with Bob Dylan. Always alert to emerging talent whose appeal often outpaced contemporary tastes, Reizner had first encountered Buzzy Linhart on stage in America in the mid-1960s and attempted without success to secure him a contract with Mercury Records until later in the decade. In the meantime, Reizner relocated to England in the latter half of the 1960s, where he produced early solo recordings by session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan and assisted Sullivan in selecting the material for the Mercury album Sitar Beat.
Appointed head of European operations for Mercury, Reizner produced albums by the Eyes of Blue, finally placed Buzzy Linhart under contract for a solo debut in England, and also found time to oversee the 1968 debut album by the Buddy Miles Express. Although Reizner had sung earlier in his career and used his company position to cut an album in the Tom Jones style around the same period, he never registered as a recording artist. Instead, the artists he signed during these years built his standing within the industry. While serving as head of Mercury’s European operations, Reizner signed David Bowie to his first American record contract—despite Reizner’s own reservations and at the urging of employee Calvin Mark Lee—and oversaw the release of “Space Oddity” and The Man Who Sold the World. More conspicuously at the time, Reizner personally supervised the solo recordings of newly signed white soul singer Rod Stewart, producing The Rod Stewart Album and Gasoline Alley; the commercial breakthrough of those LPs, followed by Every Picture Tells a Story, soon enabled Stewart to surpass the visibility of his band the Faces and establish himself as a solo star. Reizner’s other production credits from the era include the hard-rock trio Three Man Army, and he also secured a recording contract for the progressive-rock group Van der Graaf Generator.
By the early 1970s Reizner’s sonic ambitions had grown to encompass a scale of pop-music production that even Phil Spector might have admired. His first major extravaganza was Tommy - As Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Choir, an all-star realization of the Who’s rock opera that initiated a series of expanded interpretations across multiple media and genres. The double LP, packaged in a slipcase with a lavishly illustrated libretto, became a strong seller during the 1971 Christmas season and ranked among the final hits issued by Ode Records. Released to radio just before Thanksgiving and available in stores well ahead of the holiday, the set functioned partly as a “coffee table” album, yet its sales were boosted by the single drawn from it—Rod Stewart’s heavily reverberant version of “Pinball Wizard,” which placed the 60-piece London Symphony Orchestra and 20-voice choir behind him in an expansive sonic space and offered Stewart’s voice its most prominent AM-radio exposure to date. Reizner next produced Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, whose extended orchestral and choral sections survived largely intact despite an industry-wide vinyl shortage.
Reizner’s subsequent project was the film and soundtrack album All This and World War II. Directed by Susan Winslow, the movie matched World War II documentary footage with Beatles songs performed by contemporary acts including the Bee Gees, Peter Gabriel, Bryan Ferry, and Ambrosia. As an audio undertaking it paralleled Reizner’s all-star Tommy, and although critics largely dismissed the film, which soon vanished from theaters, the slipcased double-LP soundtrack sold briskly on the strength of its Beatles interpretations. Reizner had accurately gauged public appetite for additional Beatles-related material during an era that also saw the Broadway production Beatlemania; moreover, despite the harsh reviews, the project surpassed Robert Stigwood’s later Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band film in every respect, a work sometimes conflated with Reizner’s in public memory because the Bee Gees participated in both. The soundtrack did generate a hit single in Elton John’s reading of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
Had Reizner survived into the period when MTV and commercial home video emerged, his multimedia instincts would likely have translated directly into conceptual video production. In the event, All This and World War II and his music supervision for the British film Black Joy marked his final projects. He died in 1977 at age 43, at the height of his reputation. In the years since, his productions with Rod Stewart and Rick Wakeman have remained in print, his all-star Tommy has enjoyed successful CD reissues, and even less prominent acts he worked with, such as Wishful Thinking, have seen their recordings re-released.
Appointed head of European operations for Mercury, Reizner produced albums by the Eyes of Blue, finally placed Buzzy Linhart under contract for a solo debut in England, and also found time to oversee the 1968 debut album by the Buddy Miles Express. Although Reizner had sung earlier in his career and used his company position to cut an album in the Tom Jones style around the same period, he never registered as a recording artist. Instead, the artists he signed during these years built his standing within the industry. While serving as head of Mercury’s European operations, Reizner signed David Bowie to his first American record contract—despite Reizner’s own reservations and at the urging of employee Calvin Mark Lee—and oversaw the release of “Space Oddity” and The Man Who Sold the World. More conspicuously at the time, Reizner personally supervised the solo recordings of newly signed white soul singer Rod Stewart, producing The Rod Stewart Album and Gasoline Alley; the commercial breakthrough of those LPs, followed by Every Picture Tells a Story, soon enabled Stewart to surpass the visibility of his band the Faces and establish himself as a solo star. Reizner’s other production credits from the era include the hard-rock trio Three Man Army, and he also secured a recording contract for the progressive-rock group Van der Graaf Generator.
By the early 1970s Reizner’s sonic ambitions had grown to encompass a scale of pop-music production that even Phil Spector might have admired. His first major extravaganza was Tommy - As Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Choir, an all-star realization of the Who’s rock opera that initiated a series of expanded interpretations across multiple media and genres. The double LP, packaged in a slipcase with a lavishly illustrated libretto, became a strong seller during the 1971 Christmas season and ranked among the final hits issued by Ode Records. Released to radio just before Thanksgiving and available in stores well ahead of the holiday, the set functioned partly as a “coffee table” album, yet its sales were boosted by the single drawn from it—Rod Stewart’s heavily reverberant version of “Pinball Wizard,” which placed the 60-piece London Symphony Orchestra and 20-voice choir behind him in an expansive sonic space and offered Stewart’s voice its most prominent AM-radio exposure to date. Reizner next produced Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, whose extended orchestral and choral sections survived largely intact despite an industry-wide vinyl shortage.
Reizner’s subsequent project was the film and soundtrack album All This and World War II. Directed by Susan Winslow, the movie matched World War II documentary footage with Beatles songs performed by contemporary acts including the Bee Gees, Peter Gabriel, Bryan Ferry, and Ambrosia. As an audio undertaking it paralleled Reizner’s all-star Tommy, and although critics largely dismissed the film, which soon vanished from theaters, the slipcased double-LP soundtrack sold briskly on the strength of its Beatles interpretations. Reizner had accurately gauged public appetite for additional Beatles-related material during an era that also saw the Broadway production Beatlemania; moreover, despite the harsh reviews, the project surpassed Robert Stigwood’s later Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band film in every respect, a work sometimes conflated with Reizner’s in public memory because the Bee Gees participated in both. The soundtrack did generate a hit single in Elton John’s reading of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
Had Reizner survived into the period when MTV and commercial home video emerged, his multimedia instincts would likely have translated directly into conceptual video production. In the event, All This and World War II and his music supervision for the British film Black Joy marked his final projects. He died in 1977 at age 43, at the height of his reputation. In the years since, his productions with Rod Stewart and Rick Wakeman have remained in print, his all-star Tommy has enjoyed successful CD reissues, and even less prominent acts he worked with, such as Wishful Thinking, have seen their recordings re-released.