Barbra Streisand shares tribute to late producer Richard Perry: “He was a truly special person”

Barbra Streisand has shared a tribute to the late record producer – and her past collaborator – Richard Perry.

• READ MORE: Remembering the music legends we lost in 2024

Earlier this week (December 24), Perry passed away aged 82. His cause of death was cardiac arrest, as confirmed by his friend Daphna Kastner Keitel.

“He maximized his time here,” Kastner said in a statement, per AP. “He was generous, fun, sweet and made the world a better place. The world is a little less sweeter without him here. But it’s a little bit sweeter in heaven.”

On Christmas Day (December 25), Streisand shared her own tribute to Perry, accompanied with a picture of the duo in the studio, taken on an unknown date. “Richard had an uncanny ability to pick the hits, and most important to me, a wonderful sense of humor,” she wrote. “We had such fun in the studio…and we became really good life-long friends”

She continued: “We worked together on two albums, ‘Stoney End’ and ‘Barbra Joan Streisand’, where he encouraged me to record contemporary songs. It was exciting to explore that kind of material with him.”

“By the way, Richard thought Laura Nyro’s ‘Stoney End’ would be a hit for me, and I thought he was nuts! I was so happy to be proven wrong!”

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A post shared by Barbra Streisand (@barbrastreisand)

“He was a truly special person and I’m so grateful our paths crossed. Rest in musical peace Richard.”

Streisand also wrote about Perry in her 2023 memoir, My Name is Barbra: “Richard had a knack for matching the right song to the right artist.”

Renowned as a producer, Perry received a Grammys Trustee Award in 2015. Over his four-decade career, he worked with acts like Streisand, along with Rod Stewart, The Beatles, The Pointer Sisters, Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel and Diana Ross, among others.

In a comment on Streisand’s Instagram post, film score composer James Newton Howard reflected on his time working with Perry: “I played on a bunch of records that Richard produced. He knew a hit song when he heard it. I loved working with him.”

Between 2002-2005 Perry’s greatest success came in the form of Rod Stewart’s ‘The Great American Songbook’ albums. The project saw the singer release four volumes of standards while struggling with writer’s block following his divorce.

Stewart also paid tribute to Perry, taking to Instagram to say “farewell” to the producer, who he refers to as his “dear buddy”.

“They say in life a man is lucky if he can count his true friends on one hand, and you were certainly one of them,” his statement reads. “Now I’ve lost you and I’m devastated. We played and worked so closely together for so many years, creating some of the most memorable music together.

“You were there when Penny and I first started dating, encouraging our relationship,” Stewart continues. “We are both in tears as I post this farewell.”

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