Phil Ramone

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Phil Ramone is a violinist, composer, recording engineer, and innovative record producer born in 1941.

As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten. In the late 1940s he trained as a classical violinist at The Juilliard School, where one classmate of his was Phil Woods.

In 1961 he established an independent recording studio A&R Recording. There he quickly gained a reputation as a sound engineer and music producer, in particular for his use of innovative technology. Among those whose music he has produced are Burt Bacharach, Laura Branigan, Karen Carpenter, Ray Charles, Chicago, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Elton John, Fito Páez, Quincy Jones, B. B. King, Julian Lennon, Madonna, Paul McCartney, George Michael, Sinéad O'Connor, Luciano Pavarotti, Andre Previn, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, James Taylor, Olivia Newton-John, Liza Minnelli, Barry Manilow and Clay Aiken.

He is also credited with recording Marilyn Monroe's rendition of Happy Birthday to You to President John F. Kennedy.

Among the technical innovations he introduced at A&R are four-track recorders, optical surround sound for movies, and digital recording techniques. His studio was the first to release music commercially on compact disc; Joel's 52nd Street was the first album to be broadly released on the medium.

Ramone has been awarded honorary degrees by Five Towns College and Berklee College of Music. He is also on Berklee's Board of Trustees.

It is rumored that the punk rock band The Ramones was named after him.