Gus Dudgeon

Best known for producing Elton John's classic albums of the 1970s including Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water, and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Gus Dudgeon was one of England's most successful record producers and a pioneer in the use of audio sampling. Dudgeon's recording career started in the early 1960s at Olympic Studios in London where he was a tea boy. With neither musical nor technical training, Dudgeon worked his way up to staff engineer and joined Decca Studios. Among the classic records he engineered were the Zombies' hit single "She's Not There" and John Mayall's Blues Breakers album featuring Eric Clapton. By the late 1960s Dudgeon had become a freelance producer and made a name for himself with his lush pop orchestrations such as those on David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and Harry Nilsson's reworking of Badfinger's "Without You". Dudgeon's use of an African tribal drum loop on the 1971 John Kongos hit "He's Gonna Step On You Again" is widely recognized as the first ever use of an audio sample in a commercial recording. However, it was with Elton John where Dudgeon's place in recording history would be sealed. Bernie Taupin may have provided the lyrics, Elton John the piano and vocals, but it was Dudgeon who provided the magic on tracks like "Your Song", "Tiny Dancer", and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Dudgeon remained active as a record producer throughout the 1980s and 1990s working with diverse artists such as Joan Armatrading and XTC in addition to reuniting with Elton John on his Live From Australia album. He was also active in the remastering of Elton John's CD back catalog for Universal. On July 21, 2002 while traveling on the M4 near Reading, Dudgeon and his wife Sheila were killed when their Jaguar XK8 convertible left the road and crashed down an embankment. He was 59.