Jack Daugherty (musician)

Jack Daugherty (August 13, 1930 - February 2, 1991) was a musician and producer who is best known for being the music producer of the band The Carpenters.

Early work

For most of his early professional career, Daugherty had worked as a trumpeter in Woody Herman's band. By the 1960s, he had all but retired from the music business, working in public relations at North American Aviation, an aircraft company with a location operating in the Los Angeles area. He went on to produce three albums: Jack Daugherty and the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seventy One (referred to by Sounds as "a supersession of the finest studio musicians in Hollywood"^[1]), on A&M Records, Carmel by the Sea, on the Monterey Label, and Romance, on Columbia Records, Japan, as his last known project.

The Carpenters

Though no longer actively involved in music, Daugherty still kept an open network with other performers throughout the years. One was John Pisano, guitarist of Herb Alpert's band The Tijuana Brass, and still a part of the A&M Records roster. Daugherty is credited with getting a demo tape of Karen and Richard Carpenter's work to Herb Alpert through Pisano.

Alpert seconded Daugherty's judgement and signed the Carpenters in 1969, whilst Daugherty also gained a personal production contract with A&M Records, in addition to being assigned responsibilities for production of the Carpenters.

He produced The Carpenters from 1969 with the release of Offering and continued until 1972, with the release of A Song for You. These early recordings carry the credit "Produced by Jack Daugherty / Jack Daugherty Productions".

Daugherty was fired from A&M Records in 1972 after Richard Carpenter made his disagreement known to Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss that he would no longer tolerate sharing production credit with Daugherty. The disagreement was sparked by a Cashbox magazine review of A Song for You, which stated "Superb Jack Daugherty production", whereas Daugherty was not by definition a creative producer of any of the Carpenters' work, though he did production-related duties as far as booking musicians and studio time. Daugherty's departure sparked a bitter and lengthy legal battle between A&M Records and Daugherty, with Daugherty's claim of unfair dismissal ultimately rejected by the courts in 1981.

Daugherty's last project was his own music album, ROMANCE, which was co-produced with one of his close friend Kojiro Ishii and released by Columbia Records in Japan. Despite the damaged relationship with the Carpenters, Daugherty did put his differences with the band aside and attended the funeral of Karen Carpenter in 1983. He died on February 2, 1991 of complications during coronary bypass surgery.

References

• Coleman, Ray. The Carpenters: The Untold Story. HarperCollins, New York, 1994. ISBN 978-0-06-018345-5