Mike Berniker
Mike Berniker | |
---|---|
Born | (1935-06-30)June 30, 1935 Brooklyn, New York, United States |
Died | July 25, 2008(2008-07-25) (aged 73) Great Barrington, Massachusetts, United States |
Occupation(s) | Record producer |
Michael Berniker (June 30, 1935 – July 25, 2008) was an American record producer who was recognized with nine Grammy Awards over the course of his career for his work on albums with such performers as Perry Como, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, Johnny Mathis and Barbra Streisand, as well as Broadway theatre cast recordings, Latin jazz, classical, spoken word and comedy albums in a career that lasted some forty years for labels including Columbia Records and RCA Records.
Born on June 30, 1935, and raised in Brooklyn, he attended Columbia University, studying music and philosophy.[1] While serving at Fort Bliss in El Paso County, Texas while in the United States Army for two years, he hosted a local radio show and organized a jazz festival.[2]
While in his late-20s, Berniker produced Barbra Streisand's first three albums — The Barbra Streisand Album (that year's Grammy winner for Album of the Year), The Second Barbra Streisand Album and The Third Album — all of which were released six months apart in the one-year span from February 1963 to February 1964, and which were described by The New York Times as "among the most expressively uninhibited" of her career.[2] Berniker also produced Streisand's classic career-making single "People", her first Top 10 single. He produced several Broadway albums, including his work with composer Cy Coleman on The Will Rogers Follies, which won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album at the 1992 ceremonies. He won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the Grammy Awards of 1986 for his work as producer of the original Broadway cast album for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.[3]
As an executive with RCA Records, Berniker signed Daryl Hall and John Oates and Juice Newton.[2]
Berniker lived with his wife Heather in Fort Lee, New Jersey from the mid-1970s until 2002, when they moved to Hillsdale, New York. He died on July 25, 2008, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts of complications from kidney disease.[3]
References
- ^ "Obituaries". Columbia College Today. December 2008. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
- ^ a b c Holden, Michael. "Michael Berniker, 73, Record Producer, Dies", The New York Times, July 29, 2008. Accessed September 23, 2008.
- ^ a b Levin, Jay. "Grammy winner M. Berniker", The Record, September 23, 2008. Accessed September 23, 2008.
External links
- Mike Berniker discography at Discogs
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- The Best of the Stan Freberg Shows – Stan Freberg (1958)
- Lincoln Portrait – Carl Sandburg (1959)
- FDR Speaks – Robert Bialek (producer) (1960)
- Humor in Music – Leonard Bernstein (1961)
- The Story-Teller: A Session with Charles Laughton – Charles Laughton (1962)
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – Edward Albee (playwright) (1963)
- BBC Tribute to John F. Kennedy – That Was the Week That Was (1964)
- John F. Kennedy: As We Remember Him – Goddard Lieberson (producer) (1965)
- Edward R. Murrow - A Reporter Remembers, Vol. I: The War Years – Edward R. Murrow (1966)
- Gallant Men – Everett Dirksen (1967)
- Lonesome Cities – Rod McKuen (1968)
- We Love You Call Collect – Art Linkletter & Diane Linkletter (1969)
- Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam – Martin Luther King Jr. (1970)
- Desiderata – Les Crane (1971)
- Lenny – Bruce Botnick (producer) & the Original Broadway Cast (1972)
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Harris (1973)
- Good Evening – Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (1974)
- Give 'em Hell, Harry! – James Whitmore (1975)
- Great American Documents – Henry Fonda, Helen Hayes, James Earl Jones, and Orson Welles (1976)
- The Belle of Amherst – Julie Harris (1977)
- Citizen Kane (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Orson Welles (1978)
- Ages of Man: Readings from Shakespeare – John Gielgud (1979)
- Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein – Pat Carroll (1980)
- Donovan's Brain – Orson Welles (1981)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Movie on Record – Tom Voegeli (producer) and Various Artists (1982)
- Lincoln Portrait – William Warfield (1983)
- The Words of Gandhi – Ben Kingsley (1984)
- Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – Mike Berniker (producer) & the Original Broadway Cast (1985)
- Interviews from the Class of '55 Recording Sessions – Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chips Moman, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Sam Phillips (1986)
- Lake Wobegon Days – Garrison Keillor (1987)
- Speech by Rev. Jesse Jackson – Jesse Jackson (1988)
- It's Always Something – Gilda Radner (1989)
- Gracie: A Love Story – George Burns (1990)
- The Civil War – Ken Burns (1991)
- What You Can Do to Avoid AIDS – Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Robert O'Keefe (1992)
- On the Pulse of Morning – Maya Angelou (1993)
- Get in the Van – Henry Rollins (1994)
- Phenomenal Woman – Maya Angelou (1995)
- It Takes a Village – Hillary Clinton (1996)
- Charles Kuralt's Spring – Charles Kuralt (1997)
- Still Me – Christopher Reeve (1998)
- The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. – LeVar Burton (1999)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography – Sidney Poitier, Rick Harris, and John Runnette (producers) (2000)
- Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones – Quincy Jones, Jeffrey S. Thomas, Steven Strassman (engineers), and Elisa Shokoff (producer) (2001)
- A Song Flung Up to Heaven – Maya Angelou and Charles B. Potter (producer) (2002)
- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them – Al Franken and Paul Ruben (producer) (2003)
- My Life – Bill Clinton (2004)
- Dreams from My Father – Barack Obama (2005)
- Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis – Jimmy Carter / With Ossie and Ruby – Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (2006)
- The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama and Jacob Bronstein (producer) (2007)
- An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore – Beau Bridges, Cynthia Nixon, and Blair Underwood (2008)
- Always Looking Up – Michael J. Fox (2009)
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Audiobook) – Jon Stewart (2010)
- If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't) – Betty White (2011)
- Society's Child – Janis Ian (2012)
- America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't – Stephen Colbert (2013)
- Diary of a Mad Diva – Joan Rivers (2014)
- A Full Life: Reflections at 90 – Jimmy Carter (2015)
- In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox – Carol Burnett (2016)
- The Princess Diarist – Carrie Fisher (2017)
- Faith: A Journey for All – Jimmy Carter (2018)
- Becoming – Michelle Obama (2019)
- Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth – Rachel Maddow (2020)
- Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation from John Lewis − Don Cheadle (2021)
- Finding Me – Viola Davis (2022)
- The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times – Michelle Obama (2023)