Rock Producer Jack Douglas Dies at 80

Jack Douglas, the acclaimed rock producer and engineer behind landmark albums by John Lennon, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and others, died on Monday. He was 80.

A statement from his family on social media announced that Douglas "passed away peacefully on Monday night," adding, "As many of you who follow him know, he produced great music, and lived a colorful life. We know that he touched many of your lives ... He will be missed."

Born on November 6, 1945, in the Bronx borough of New York City, Douglas began his career as a folk musician in the early 1960s. He contributed songs to Robert F. Kennedy's 1964 Senate campaign and later studied at the Institute of Audio Research. His entry into the recording industry came as a janitor at the newly opened Record Plant studios in midtown Manhattan, where he quickly advanced to engineering roles.

Douglas engineered sessions for a range of artists, including Miles Davis, the Who, the New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, Mountain and John Lennon's 1971 solo album Imagine. This work fostered a friendship with Lennon that led to Douglas co-producing the former Beatle's final album, the Grammy-winning Double Fantasy, with Yoko Ono in 1980. He assembled a...